The celebrated Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been missing for more than 24 hours after police prevented him from boarding a plane.
The detention adds to the lengthening list of dissidents held in a security crackdown by a government determined to snuff out challenges to its power as it approaches a leadership transition in late 2012.
As an artist who has exhibited in London's Tate Modern gallery and who regularly speaks to Western media, Ai has the highest international profile of the dozens of critics detained in the past two months.
Police searched his studio on the northern outskirts of Beijing, seizing some of the computers in his office, his Beijing lawyer Pu Zhiqiang said.
"They had a search order, but they didn't say what crime he had been accused of," he said.
Ai was still not contactable on Monday more than 24 hours after officials stopped him from boarding a plane from Beijing to Hong Kong.
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