Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei (艾未未) has a metaphor for the travel ban that will prevent him attending the growing number of exhibitions of his work being held around the world as his renown increases.
“I can swim, but not far,” Ai said of the ban on leaving China imposed last week despite the expiry of a yearlong bail term. “I hope I can travel. This is an important part of freedom. This is also a human right.”
A year after he was freed from unofficial detention, the outspoken 55-year-old, who has become a thorn in the side of the Chinese government, clearly chafes at the continuing restrictions on his freedom.
Photo: Reuters
In an interview at his Beijing studio Ai, who spent 81 days in custody last year, described his frustration at the ongoing case against him.
“I have a lot of art activities, design and construction in the next one or two years, which will be overseas because they are not permitted domestically. Limiting me from leaving China will influence these events,” he said.
Ai was detained last year as police rounded up activists amid online calls for Arab Spring-style protests in China. On his release on June 22 last year, authorities accused him of tax evasion and barred him from leaving Beijing for a year — a restriction that has prevented him from attending a number of his exhibitions.
Ai has just missed an opening at London’s Serpentine Gallery for a pavilion with a floating platform roof and an interior clad in cork, which he co-designed by communicating on Skype.
He had hoped to attend an October show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington and take up an invitation to teach in Berlin.
However, on Thursday last week police told him that unresolved cases involving accusations of spreading pornography, practicing bigamy and conducting illegal foreign-exchange transactions supported the overseas travel ban.
“These three things are just an excuse not to give me the right to go outside China,” he said.
The pornography charges stem from what he called a joke after he challenged two groups of visitors to take nude photos with him, which were posted online.
He is married, but had a relationship with another woman — cited by authorities as bigamy — with whom he had a child, and officials have threatened they could detain him again.
“They are used to doing things this way,” said Ai, who is technically allowed to travel within China outside of Beijing, but whose passport is being held by authorities.
He described the move as revenge against him, but said it would also hurt China, which is seeking to build soft power through spreading culture abroad.
“China’s policy has always emphasized soft power. This will stop China’s cultural exchanges and projects,” he said.
Ai said his desire to travel overseas did not necessarily mean he would choose a life in exile, like many other Chinese dissidents.
He is now challenging the tax evasion charges and a multimillion-dollar penalty brought against Beijing Fake Cultural Development, a company he set up, but which is registered in his wife’s name.
A court hearing last week lasted more than nine hours and a ruling is expected by early August.
Ai compared the court fight to how Chinese authorities reportedly used to charge the families of executed criminals for the bullets.
“It doesn’t matter how wrong they are, they put all the cost on you — cost of money, cost of energy, passion and your will. It’s wasted because you cannot deal with this big machine,” he said.
He hopes for change, but he questions how much his activism has been able to accomplish.
“According to logic, there should be change because this society has already reached a time when it must change,” he said.
However, he added: “It’s like [being] against the wall. I have raised consciousness, that’s all.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number