The United States and the European Union have called for the immediate release of Ai, who disappeared on Sunday after he was arrested by police. Police searched his studio and seized computers. They also interrogated his friends and colleagues. Beijing continues to arrest and arbitrary convict dissidents.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The European Union and United States have called on China to release immediately mainland artist Ai Weiwei, a prominent critic of the ruling Communist Party, who disappeared on Sunday when he was detained by police as he was about to board a plane to Hong Kong. In the meantime, the authorities continue to arrest dissidents, hundreds of whom are now behind bars even if less famous and often ignored by the West.

“We call on the Chinese authorities to refrain from using arbitrary detention under any circumstances,” the European Union ambassador to China Markus Ederer said in a statement.

“I [. . .]  hope he [Ai] will be released immediately,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said that human rights applied under the rule of law were “essential prerequisites” to China's long-term prosperity and stability.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also said he had learned of Ai's detention “with great concern”.

Ai is a well-known artist and architect, famous for his Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. However, he has also become an open critic of the Communist Party and government.

He has probed school collapses and the number of dead students in the huge 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, something that has not pleased the authorities. In January 2011, his Shanghai studio was demolished. He was also blocked from leaving China in December for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo that honoured dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Ai's wife, Lu Qing, and his lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, said they still had no news about the whereabouts of the artist, or the charges for which he was arrested.

Police searched his studio on the northern outskirts of Beijing, seizing computers, Pu said. “They had a search order, but they didn't say what crime he had been accused of,” he said.

Police also questioned some of the artist’s colleagues and friends. Ms Lu was also detained by police on Sunday, but was released Monday night.

Under Chinese law, the authorities must inform relatives within 24 hours when someone is brought in for questioning and 48 hours if he or she is arrested. However, the rule is often disregarded.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner called on Monday for Ai's immediate release, saying Washington was “deeply concerned by the trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, arrests and convictions of human rights activists for exercising their internationally recognised human right for freedom of expression.”

Ai’s arrest is part of China’s worst crackdown since 1998. Hundreds of people, including human rights activists, have been arrested, detained or simply disappeared, most of whom are not as well as known as the artist (see “More than 200 arrests to quell the "jasmine revolution" in China,” in AsiaNews, 2 April 2011).

The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) organisation reported that artists Huang Xiang, Zhui Hun and Cheng Li were arrested on 24 March for “causing a disturbance” for putting on a show that touched on the current crackdown on freedom of expression and the "Jasmine Revolution”. Guo Gai was arrested for taking photographs during the exhibition.

Liu Anjun came home on Sunday after he was seized by police on 18 February who beat him and left him for days in a rural area guarded by local villagers.

Also on Sunday, petitioner Jiang Jiawen, from Dandong (Liaoning), was sentenced to a year of hard labour at a rehabilitation-through-labour (RTL) camp. This is his fourth stay at such a facility.

Activist Hua Chunhui was also sent to a RTL camp.

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• weiwei
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