Ai WeiWei, Chinese Pro-Democracy Dissident, missing
Chinese authorities are still silent on the whereabouts of Ai WeiWei, who has been missing for more than a day after he was held by authorities as part of a massive crackdown on pro-democracy dissidents.
Mr Ai was held by police on Sunday as he attempted to board a flight to Hong Kong. Family and friends have been unable to contact the pro-democracy activist for more than 24 hours. His disappearance comes as China carries out a massive crackdown on lawyers, writers and activists, arresting and detaining dozens since online calls for protests similar to those in the Middle East and North Africa began to circulate in February. No public protests have emerged. An outspoken government critic, Mr Ai has been keeping an informal tally of those detentions on Twitter, where he has more than 70,000 followers. Despite his frequent brushes with the Chinese state, the internationally-acclaimed artist has never before been formerly arrested or detained for such a long period of time. “There is no news of him so far,” said Lu Qing, Mr Ai’s wife. Mrs Lu said she was interrogated on Sunday night by Beijing city police, who searched the couple’s home and took away items, including documents, computers and hard drives.
“They asked me about Ai WeiWei’s work and the articles he posted online,” she said. “I told them that everything that Ai did was very public, and if they wanted to know his opinions and work they could just look at the internet.”