Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未), who was detained at the weekend in a major government crackdown on dissent, is under police investigation for suspected economic crimes, state media said yesterday.
Western governments and rights groups have lined up in support of Ai, an avant-garde artist who has become known as much for his work as for his activism, which frequently takes aim at China’s Communist Party.
The Xinhua news agency said in a one-paragraph dispatch that police were investigating Ai — who was detained on Sunday at Beijing’s international airport while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong — “in accordance with the law.”
Ai’s wife, Lu Qing (路青), said that she still had no official confirmation from police about the investigation, and that she also had no news about where her husband was being detained.
“I am waiting for news,” an emotional Lu said in a halting voice. “I so far have no information from the authorities about the fate of Ai Weiwei.”
Lu added that the story about the investigation was apparently removed from Xinhua’s Chinese-language feed after about an hour.
Ai’s attorney Liu Xiaoyuan (劉曉原) said he had spoken with the family about possibly defending the artist in this case, but that nothing had been decided.
“Right now it is hard to say what is going on,” Liu said.
Ai has investigated accusations that shoddy construction caused school collapses in a huge 2008 earthquake in southwestern China, and launched a “citizen’s” probe into a Shanghai fire that killed 58 people last November.
At the 2009 trial in Sichuan of another activist, Ai said he was detained and beaten by police who blocked him from testifying on behalf of the accused.
In January, his newly built Shanghai studio was demolished in apparent retaliation for his criticism of city policies.
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