HONG KONG, Oct 22 (AFP) - China will investigate the escape of dissident Wang Xizhe through Hong Kong to the United States, a Chinese official said here Tuesday.

Zhang Junsheng, deputy director of Xinhua news agency, China's de facto government representative in Hong Kong, told reporters Chinese police were "still actively pursuing" those who helped the dissident.

Zhang did not say whether Hong Kong activists were also targeted. He said China would seek to prosecute Wang for breaking the law.

Wang, who fled China on October 14, told a press conference in San Francisco he was willing to return home to face charges of illegally leaving the country if the authorities guaranteed he would not be politically persecuted.

At the press conference, Wang, a former factory worker from Guangzhou, in southern China, who was released on parole in 1993 after serving 12 years of a 14-year term for counter revolutionary activities, also said he wanted to join Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang and offered to push for talks to bring the two longtime rivals together.

Wang has been in virtual hiding since fleeing China.

He fled after fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo was sent to a labour camp for three years. The two had written a joint letter calling for self-determination for Tibet and the impeachment of President Jiang Zemin.