“Disappear” is a great word because it immediately conjures up images of having a bag thrown over their head and being whisked away never to be seen again, but it’s also vague enough that you can use it any time someone doesn’t make a public appearance for any amount of time. When Western media says someone “disappears,” it typically just means they haven’t seen them on TV recently, it’s not like they’re checking in at their houses or contacting neighbors or relatives or anything like that, and obviously it doesn’t mean anyone’s reported them missing. If the person reappears, first off they never technically said anything bad happened to them, but also, once they’ve got the audience primed to believe something’s going on, they can keep running stories about how “questions remain” to keep the story going for a couple more cycles even though the only thing that raised any questions in the first place has been resolved.

See Peng Shuai for an example of this.