The wife of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未), whose detention sparked an international outcry, has urged lawmakers to reject draft legislation that would cement in law police powers to hold dissidents in secret locations without telling their families.
Human rights advocates have decried China’s proposed amendments to its Criminal Procedure Code that could embolden authorities to go further with the kind of shadowy detentions that swept up human rights lawyers and veteran protesters earlier this year.
“If the above measures are passed, it will be a regression for China’s legal system, the deterioration of human rights, and it will be a hindrance to the progress of our civilization,” Lu Qing (路青) wrote in a letter to the legislative working committee of the National People’s Congress, a copy of which was posted on Ai’s Google+ account.
“[When] a citizen is taken away by a public security arm, a notice to family members is the most basic right,” she said, adding that she wrote the letter after China’s rubber-stamp parliament invited citizens to comment on the draft legislation.
Activists occasionally write letters to parliament, but they are invariably greeted with stony silence as Chinese lawmakers usually offer little or no opposition to policies decided by the party.
Ai, who spent 81 days in detention this year, was released in late June after he was taken from Beijing airport and held in two secret locations.
In her letter, Lu wrote that the family still had not received any official notice on Ai’s detention.
The artist, famed for his work on the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium in Beijing, was the most internationally well-known of those detained and his family has repeatedly said he was targeted by authorities for his outspoken criticism of censorship.
Calls to Lu went unanswered, but Ai confirmed that his wife had sent her comments online yesterday morning and that she had the letter delivered by courier, but he said lawmakers were unlikely to react to her letter.
In his first scathing attack on Beijing since his release, Ai wrote late last month that Chinese officials have denied citizens their basic rights.
Under the conditions of his release, Ai is not allowed to be interviewed by journalists or to use the Internet and he had gone largely silent since the commentary.
Asked whether he had come under more pressure from the authorities, Ai said: “I cannot do any interviews anymore, I’m very sorry, but my situation isn’t very good.”
When Ai was released on bail, the Chinese government said he remained under investigation for suspicion of economic crimes, including tax evasion. Ai has said that he has not received a formal notice from the authorities to explain the allegations of suspected economic crimes.
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