Ai Weiwei's wife fights secret arrests proposal

The wife of Ai Weiwei, the activist artist, has urged the Beijing government to throw out proposals which would enshrine into law the practice of holding dissidents in secret locations without telling their families.

Lu Qing said that informing relatives was "the most basic right," a clear reference to her own plight after Mr Ai was "disappeared" by police on suspicion of tax evasion and only released in June after three months' detention at a secret location.

"If the measures are passed, it will be a regression for China's legal system, the deterioration of human rights, and will be a hindrance to the progress of our civilisation," Ms Lu wrote in an open letter.

She wrote that her family had yet to receive any official notification about the detention of her husband, who is best-known for his work on the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing.

A staunch critic of single-party rule by the Communist Party, Mr Ai is barred from leaving Beijing for a year and told not to use the internet to continue his activism. Ms Lu's open letter was posted on Mr Ai's Google Plus account, which would seem to indicate that the Google Plus service does not come under the terms of the police ban on what internet services he can use.

His wife's letter was addressed to a working committee that drafts laws, which are then given the official seal of approval at the annual parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC). The bills are almost always unanimously approved at the NPC.

The forced disappearance of dissidents by state security happens regularly in China and rights activists say the new rules will merely give legitimacy to the practice.

Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared in April 2010, a short time after being released from prison, and he has not been seen since. Other activists are often held for days, weeks or months in secret locations before being released without charge.

The situation is particularly acute as the government cracks down on dissent before a change of leadership next year.