<p>After the critic of the Chinese regime, Ai Weiwei, has disappeared.</p>

Beijing - Concern for the fate of the world-renowned Chinese artist and outspoken critic of the communist government Ai Weiwei was expressed today by the European Union's delegation in Beijing. The United States, Britain, and France have protested against his detention. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations in China and around the world demand his immediate release.
    Ai was detained by police on Sunday at the Beijing airport as he was about to fly to Hong Kong. Since then, he has vanished, and his phone is turned off. The police in Beijing are not responding to inquiries about his fate, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry is also silent. According to Reuters, the police refused to provide any information to Ai's wife. Although Ai has had issues with the authorities frequently in the past, his wife claims this time it is particularly serious.
    "They searched his studio, took various recordings, computers, and other equipment, but they did not tell us where Ai is and what will happen next," said Ai's wife.
    Ai was arrested just days after the fifty-three-year-old avant-garde artist announced that he wanted to leave China and settle abroad. He reportedly wanted to open his studio in Germany and live there to escape harassment and persecution by Chinese authorities.
    Ai, who participated as a designer in the concept of the futuristic design of Beijing's architectural pride, its national Olympic stadium known as the Bird's Nest, is currently exhibiting at the Tate Modern gallery in London. He is presenting his famous porcelain sunflower seeds. He had 150 tons, about one hundred million pieces, delivered to the gallery across a thousand square meters. The hand-decorated sunflower seeds were made by 1,600 glassworkers in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen over a period of two years.
    According to the AP, the Chinese police today questioned more people from Ai's circle as part of the investigation. There are fears that Ai could be held in custody indefinitely without specific charges, which is common in China for dissidents and alleged opponents of the communist regime. Ai’s friends are also worried that he could be charged with subversion. This could lead to up to ten years in prison.
    In mid-February, Ai announced that he had been forced to cancel his first exhibition in China because the organizers informed him that its timing was politically inappropriate. In January, Ai’s newly built studio in Shanghai was demolished, and last December, the authorities prevented him from leaving China before the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, which was awarded to the imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
    Ai’s detention and disappearance fits into the ongoing massive campaign by Chinese security forces against regime opponents in general and particularly against lawyers, writers, and human rights activists. The authorities have intensified repression this year, especially after calls for public protests inspired by uprisings in Middle Eastern and North African countries appeared on the internet.