Detained China artist Ai Weiwei gets first family visit 
 
 Ai Weiwei was arrested trying to board a Hong Kong-bound plane out of Beijing 
 
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 The detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been allowed his first contact with his family since his arrest more than 40 days ago. 
 
 The artist met his wife at an unknown location on Sunday and told her he is well, his sister told the BBC. 
 
 Mr Ai is said to be under investigation for suspected "economic crimes". 
 
 The artist is a vocal critic of the government, complaining about a lack of basic freedoms and often incorporating these political themes into his work. 
 
 Ai Weiwei's wife Lu Qing was taken by Chinese police to meet her husband on Sunday afternoon. 
 
 The artist's sister told the BBC Lu Qing was summoned to a police station and taken to another location where she was allowed a brief meeting with her husband. 
 
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 - many in schools whose construction was allegedly compromised due to corruption In August 2009, beaten up by police in Sichuan while trying to testify for dissident Tan Zuoren 
 
 in Sichuan while trying to testify for dissident Tan Zuoren Although a co-designer of Beijing's Bird's Nest Olympics stadium, he later disavowed the project, condemning China's hosting of the Games as "fake and hypocritical" 
 
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 was read by 10,000 people a day until shut down by authorities in May 2009 Ai Weiwei is a "maverick" who "chooses to have a different attitude from ordinary people toward law", the Global Times said on Wednesday 
 
 Mrs Lu does not know where that location was, but thinks it was only used for the meeting - she said she did not believe her husband was being held there. 
 
 She reported that Mr Ai told her those holding him were taking good care of him, he was healthy and she should not worry. 
 
 However the meeting was very brief, she said, and there were many other people present, some of them taking notes, so she was afraid to talk much more with her husband. 
 
 The family were then warned by police not to discuss the visit with the media as they were told it could "be bad for Mr Ai's case". 
 
 His family had been demanding to know if he was safe and well as more than 43 days have passed since Mr Ai was detained by police at Beijing's airport, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing. 
 
 He had not been allowed any contact with his lawyers or his family. 
 
 Calls by artists and governments worldwide for information had not produced any response from China's authorities. 
 
 China's foreign ministry has insisted that Mr Ai's case has "nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression". ||||| Groundbreaking Chinese artist Ai Weiwei appeared healthy but tense during his first meeting with family since he was detained more than a month ago, and authorities still haven't explained why he was seized, his wife said Monday. 
 
 FILE - In this April 6, 2011 file photo, Lu Qing, wife of missing groundbreaking Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, speaks during an interview in Beijing, China, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Ai has been allowed his... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2010 file photo, artist Ai Weiwei arrives at the Wenyuhe court to support fellow artist Wu Yuren during his trial in Beijing. Ai has been allowed his first family visit after more... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this May 11, 2011 file photo, workers put up a two-story-high black-and-white photograph of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei outside the Lisson Gallery in London. Ai has been allowed his first family... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lu Qing told The Associated Press she was allowed to meet with her husband at an unknown location for about twenty minutes Sunday afternoon and that he seemed conflicted and upset, though insisted he was healthy and that his physical needs were being met. 
 
 "I could see redness in his eyes. It was obvious that without freedom to express himself he was not behaving naturally even with me, someone from his family," Lu said. 
 
 The avant-garde artist and fearless government critic was taken into custody April 3 and has been held incommunicado though not yet charged with any crime. His case has prompted an outcry in the art world and among officials in the U.S. and EU who say his treatment is a sign of China's deteriorating human rights. 
 
 The Foreign Ministry has said Ai is being investigated for suspected economic crimes, but his detention comes amid a crackdown on dissent apparently sparked by fears that uprisings such as those in the Arab world could erupt in China. Ai had been keeping an informal tally on Twitter of the dozens of bloggers, writers and other intellectuals who were detained or arrested in the campaign before he was taken away. 
 
 Ai is famous in artistic circles for performance pieces that explored the dizzying change of contemporary China and for irreverent, avant garde works such as a photo series that shows him giving the middle finger to landmarks such as Tiananmen Square in Beijing and the White House in Washington. 
 
 He is known more popularly as one of the designers on the iconic "Bird's Nest" national stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and in recent years, has emerged as an advocate for victims of social injustice. 
 
 Lu said two other people were present during the brief meeting, including one person "who seemed to be in charge of Ai," and another who took notes. 
 
 "He seemed conflicted, contained, his face was tense," Lu said. 
 
 Lu said Ai was not handcuffed and was wearing his own clothes instead of a detention center uniform. His trademark beard had not been shaven. Lu said the people that arranged the visit, who showed her no identification, made it clear that no questions other than health related ones were allowed. 
 
 "We could not talk about the economic charges or other stuff, mainly about the family and health," she said. "We were careful, we knew that the deal could be broken at any moment, so we were careful." 
 
 Ai, 53, suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes. He told his wife that he takes long walks everyday, has his blood pressure checked 7 times a day, and that he eats and sleeps very well. 
 
 Despite the visit, much about Ai's case remains murky. Family visits are rarely allowed for suspects under criminal investigation until after they are formally charged. 
 
 Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer and friend of Ai's who met with Lu Monday to discuss the visit, said it sounded like Ai was being held under residential surveillance somewhere outside Beijing. 
 
 Chinese law allows police to impose residential surveillance for up to six months before requiring them to make a decision about how to proceed with a case, as opposed to 30 days under criminal detention, said Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based research manager for the U.S. human rights group Dui Hua Foundation. 
 
 Such surveillance usually takes place at the suspect's home and is "supposed to be a less restrictive measure than detention," Rosenzweig said in an email. "Instead, the police seem to be using residential surveillance as a way to legitimize extended, incommunicado detention outside of a regular detention facility." 
 
 Ai's elder sister Gao Ge said that her family is relieved to know that Ai is well, but hopes the government can clarify what is going on with his case. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and officials from the European Union and elsewhere have called on China to release Ai and criticized Beijing for what they say is backsliding on human rights. 
 
 Ai's influence has ranged far beyond that of the usual contemporary artist. His outrage at the deaths of so many students in the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 turned him into a social activist and tapped into anger among many Chinese at official corruption and indifference. He took to Twitter, prolifically tweeting not only his social criticism but his everyday doings, attracting more than 70,000 followers, even though Twitter is blocked by China's Internet filtering. 
 
 Since his disappearance, art museums such as the Tate in London, collectors and artists have rallied behind him. At the launch of an exhibition of Ai's sculpture earlier this month, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said fearlessness in the face of official intimidation spoke to "the indomitable desire for freedom that is inside every human being."
– Imprisoned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was granted his first family visit yesterday, 43 days after he was taken into custody, reports the BBC. Ai's wife, Lu Qing, was brought to a secret location to meet with him for about 20 minutes, under the condition they did not talk about sensitive issues, only family and health. "He seemed conflicted, contained, his face was tense. I could see redness in his eyes. It was obvious that without freedom to express himself he was not behaving naturally even with me," says Lu, who adds that Ai otherwise appeared to be in good health. "We could not talk about the economic charges or other stuff," she says, and tells the AP that others were present when they met, and some of them were taking notes. "We were careful, we knew that the deal could be broken at any moment, so we were careful." Lu says Ai was not handcuffed and was wearing his own clothes instead of a detention center uniform. His trademark beard had not been shaven. Chinese authorities have not specified the charges against him, except to say he was being investigated for "economic crimes," but it is generally believed Ai is actually being investigated for his criticism of the government.