Chinese Artist Disappeared By Police

BBC News reports:

The internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been missing for more than 24 hours after being detained at Beijing airport.

The artist was stopped while passing through security checks for a flight to Hong Kong.

No one has seen or heard from him since. The authorities have not commented.

Ai Weiwei has become one of China's most outspoken critics, complaining about a lack of human rights.

The artist was detained on Sunday morning while travelling with an assistant, Jennifer Ng.

The documents of both were checked thoroughly before Ms Ng was allowed to continue on her journey to Hong Kong.

She told the BBC that Ai Weiwei was taken away by border guards.

"I went back to check with the security officers and they said, 'He has other business - you go on the flight on your own'," she said.

A few hours later, more than 40 police officers raided the artist's Beijing studio.

Dozens of items were confiscated, said another assistant, and several people were taken to a nearby police station. They were released a few hours later.

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