BEIJING (AFP) ? US ambassador Jon Huntsman hit out at the Chinese government for its detention of artist Ai Weiwei, who was voted one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine on Thursday.
"It is very sad that the Chinese government has seen a need to silence one of its most innovative and illustrious citizens," he said in a written introduction to the artist, who is also a staunch activist, published by Time.
"Ai... has shown compassion for his fellow citizens and spoken out for victims of government abuses, calling for political reforms to better serve the people," Huntsman, who is due to leave his post in the next few days, added.
"For the world, Ai continues to represent the promise of China."
Huntsman, the former Republican governor of Utah, has hinted he will be seeking the Republican nomination to challenge US President Barack Obama for the presidency next year, after he leaves his post.
Ai was taken into custody in Beijing on April 3 as he tried to board a flight to Hong Kong, and is under investigation for unspecified "economic crimes". Relatives of the artist say they do not know where he is.
He repeatedly challenged Chinese authorities, investigating school collapses in the 2008 quake in the southwestern province of Sichuan, and launching a "citizen's probe" into a Shanghai fire that killed 58 people in November.
His detention -- part of a major government crackdown on dissent, which follows online calls for demonstrations in China to emulate the "Jasmine" protests that have rocked the Arab world -- has sparked an outcry in the West.
The United States, Australia, Britain, France and Germany have joined Amnesty International and other rights groups in calling for the release of Ai, born in 1957, whose work is on display in London's Tate Modern gallery.
Ai joins the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British actor Colin Firth and Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in the Time 100 -- the magazine's annual list of influential people.
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