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US aid group staffer detained in China

A Chinese staffer from The Asia Foundation, a US aid organization, was detained by authorities more than two months ago and hasn't been heard from since, his wife and employer said yesterday.

Bu Dongwei (卜東偉), also known as David, was taken from his home in Beijing's Haidian area by seven or eight plain-clothes police officers on May 19, his wife, Lou Hongwei (婁宏偉), said by telephone from Washington.

Barnett Baron, executive vice president of the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation, said in an e-mailed statement that the organization was informed of the detention by Bu's family and shortly thereafter confirmed the news with Chinese authorities.

"The Foundation has not received any further official updates," Baron said.

The foundation's Web site says it provides legal aid, education and health services to female migrants and rural Chinese, among other programs.

Lou said that her parents, who live with the 38-year-old Bu and the couple's 18-month-old daughter, told her that police took Bu away without explanation and confiscated books on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and a computer from the apartment. Lou was in England studying for a master's degree at Cambridge University at the time.

The family has not been notified of Bu's current location or whether he faces charges, despite repeated calls to local authorities, she said.

Lou said she believes that her husband is being held at the Qinghe Detention Center in Beijing.

Lou said she and her husband have been practitioners of Falun Gong since 1996. In 2000, they served between eight and 10 months in separate Beijing labor camps after they sent a letter to Chinese leaders asking them to reevaluate their ban on the group, which Beijing calls an evil cult.
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