The Chinese artist behind Beijing's spectacular new Olympic stadium has said he wants nothing to do with the propaganda for which it will be used during next year's games.
In an attack on the "disgusting" political conditions in the one-party state, Ai Weiwei (
"I would rather be disconnected or forgotten," said Ai, one of China's most prominent figures in the arts.
He conceived the stadium's steel-lattice design -- nicknamed the bird's nest -- with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.
"I hate the kind of feeling stirred up by promotion or propaganda ... It's the kind of sentiment when you don't stick to the facts, but try to make up something, to mislead people away from a true discussion. It is not good for anyone."
He accused those choreographing the opening ceremony on Aug. 8 next year -- including filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou (
"All the shitty directors in the world are involved. It's disgusting," Ai said. "I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment. It is mindless."
Recently, a Spielberg spokesman hinted the director might relinquish his Olympic role unless China dropped its opposition at the UN to an increased Darfur peacekeeping force; four days later, a deal on the force was announced in New York.
Although Ai's work, too, will be used as the stage for the Olympics' opening ceremony, he has no regrets.
"The joy of design is already there. The rest is rubbish," he said. "I was not hired by the state but by a design team in Switzerland. No one in the state here would ever hire me for a project like this."
With a family history of persecution by the communist government, Ai's involvement with the Olympic project raised eyebrows from the start. The artist spent much of his childhood in remote Xinjiang after his father, Ai Qing (
Such persecution, along with political murders, corruption and rampant land theft, remain taboo subjects in China. Ai is one of only a few prominent people living in Beijing to speak out.
"I very openly criticize the tendency to use culture for the purpose of propaganda, to dismiss the true function of art and the intellect," he said.
Ai's contemporary, Zhang -- whose family also had troubled times under the communists -- has been criticized at various points in his career by both the authorities and their opponents.
As for Spielberg, when he announced in April last year that he had been hired as a consultant on the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics, he said his overriding goal was "to give the world a taste of peace, friendship and understanding."
In recent months he has elaborated on his motives, after being criticized in the US for his involvement with Beijing when the government there stands accused of aiding Sudan's regime, despite the latter's promoting a genocide in Darfur.
In May, Spielberg set out his moral position on that issue when he published the text of a private letter he had sent to Chinese President Hu Jintao (
"I believe there is no greater crime against humanity than genocide. I feel strongly that every member of the world community has a moral and ethical responsibility to act to prevent such crimes," he said.
Spielberg said he hoped all sovereign nations "will work creatively to coexist with great peace and lasting prosperity and that they will treat their citizens with dignity and respect."
Ai dismissed concerns about repercussions from expressing his views.
"It is not opposition to the state, but rather in fighting for individualism and freedom of expression, freedom of human rights and justice ... If you read newspapers today you see the problems created by this structure and by the effort to maintain power. It is against everything that human society should be fighting for," he said.
A foreign colleague of mine asked me recently, “What is a safe distance from potential People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force’s (PLARF) Taiwan targets?” This article will answer this question and help people living in Taiwan have a deeper understanding of the threat. Why is it important to understand PLA/PLARF targeting strategy? According to RAND analysis, the PLA’s “systems destruction warfare” focuses on crippling an adversary’s operational system by targeting its networks, especially leadership, command and control (C2) nodes, sensors, and information hubs. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, noted in his 15 May 2025 Sedona Forum keynote speech that, as
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) last week announced that the KMT was launching “Operation Patriot” in response to an unprecedented massive campaign to recall 31 KMT legislators. However, his action has also raised questions and doubts: Are these so-called “patriots” pledging allegiance to the country or to the party? While all KMT-proposed campaigns to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have failed, and a growing number of local KMT chapter personnel have been indicted for allegedly forging petition signatures, media reports said that at least 26 recall motions against KMT legislators have passed the second signature threshold
The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Friday announced that recall motions targeting 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) have been approved, and that a recall vote would take place on July 26. Of the recall motions against 35 KMT legislators, 31 were reviewed by the CEC after they exceeded the second-phase signature thresholds. Twenty-four were approved, five were asked to submit additional signatures to make up for invalid ones and two are still being reviewed. The mass recall vote targeting so many lawmakers at once is unprecedented in Taiwan’s political history. If the KMT loses more
Taiwan’s unconditional support “for all legitimate and necessary actions taken by the government of India to safeguard national security and fight terrorist forces that cross borders to attack innocent civilians” marked a monumental shift in the relationship between Taipei and New Delhi. At a time when the Indian government sent several delegations of parliament members to convey to the rest of the world Pakistan’s role in sponsoring terrorism against India, Taiwan became one of the few nations that unequivocally supported India’s military operation, “Sindhoor.” Sure, this change in bilateral ties did not happen in a vacuum. Over the past decade,
RSS