Late last night the Chinese government acknowledged officially for the first time that artist Ai Weiwei was being detained. Well, kind of.
The official Xinhua news agency noted in a one-line report that police are investigating Ai over ‘suspected economic crimes.’ However, his detention wasn’t specifically mentioned, and there was no comment on his friend Wen Tao, who is also believed to have been detained Sunday.
Speaking to AP, Ai's wife, Lu Qing, said the couple had received several visits from police in the week leading up to his detention.
‘He told me something might happen to him,’ she reportedly said. ‘This is very serious. So many people searching the house and it’s been more than 48 hours since I've heard from him. I'm very worried about his situation, especially his health.’
Interestingly, outgoing US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman gave a forceful speech covering the issue of rights and freedom in Shanghai yesterday, in which he specifically mentioned Ai’s detention.
Speaking at the Barnett-Oksenberg Lecture, Huntsman said: ‘Long after I depart Beijing, future Ambassadors will continue to visit American citizens like Dr Feng Xue, who was wrongfully convicted of stealing state secrets and is now serving an eight-year sentence in prison far from his family in the United States. They will continue to speak up in defence of social activists, like Liu Xiaobo, Chen Guangcheng and now Ai Weiwei, who challenge the Chinese government to serve the public in all cases and at all times.’
Meanwhile, there are reports that another prominent human rights lawyer who has previously been targeted by the authorities is being detained as part of the ongoing crackdown. Chinese netizens have said Ni Yulan and her husband were taken from a Beijing hotel room this morning.
Back in November 2008, authorities reportedly destroyed her home in front of her ‘distraught’ husband ‘who pleaded with the government to release her from jail.’
‘Up to 200 police surrounded the central Beijing courtyard home of activist lawyer Ni and her husband, Dong Jiqin, as a bulldozer demolished the final sections of the property,’ AFPreported. ‘Ni is a long-time campaigner against government-backed land grabs and had organised evicted residents to protest what they said were the illegal forceful eviction and demolition of homes.’
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Johnny
“Back in November 2008, authorities reportedly destroyed her home in front of her ‘distraught’ husband ‘who pleaded with the government to release her from jail.”
CCP really has no heart. How can you destroy innocent people’s life like that? No people elected and regulated govt. would do something like that.
nobody
i’m pity for AWW. he’s becoming another victim of western media. it’s the western media made so many innocent chinese become “activist”.
here’s the logic of western media:
whatever china say, is wrong.
whatever china do, is wrong.
whatever against china, is right.
china is evil. chinese are stupid.
that’s all the western media saying.
JD
The day people like Ai Weiwei can protest peacefully in China like Anna Hazare in India ,the world will start trusting the peaceful rise of China.
Mystery
Jason, this might make an interesting article: A large missionary group was arrested outside the Sinosteel Building (中钢) in Zhongguancun last weekend. Most of those present were detained until this morning. Pastor Jin Tianming remains under house arrest.
It looks like the government has the same approach to all cults, including that of Ai Weiwei: “detain the leader and scare the followers until they stop”. If the leader goes into exile, as was the case with Li Hongzhi and the Dalai Lama, then the just scare the followers a bit more to compensate.
This has been the government’s approach with many cults. Just as the Christian arrests weren’t about Jin Tianming, nor Christianity but about power; Ai Weiwei’s detention isn’t about art or Mr Ai himself but about the power of the cult that he’s inspired. Jin’s house arrest and Ai’s detention are part of a move to suppress spiritual power structures (that are growing in a vacuum) before they grow out of the Party’s control.
Before you ask, yes: “Ai Weiwei” is a cult figurehead. Unlike the many other artists critical of the Communist Party, Ai Weiwei has a strong, loyal fan-base. A long time ago, I knew some of his worshippers here in Beijing. Ai Weiwei gives dozens—maybe hundreds—of troubled youths an outlet through which to vent their own personal frustrations. They take part in other people’s protests, film them, and distribute the films on home-made DVDs and on the internet. And Ai Weiwei’s Twitter page contains all the dates, times and locations of such protests.
They also commemorate every troubled anniversary on the Chinese political calendar—usually with bizarrely-designed, peaceful gatherings that inconvenience the authorities more than would a straight-forward confrontation. They’re not idealists, reformists nor intellectuals; they just enjoy testing authority’s limits—and this cult is a small but media-savvy nuisance for the government.
Calls for “freedom/democracy/human rights” (as opposed to corruption or land grab protests) are carried out by a very small group of people in China. Whilst Ai Weiwei doesn’t advocate these actions explicitly, he does spend up to 14 hours per day chatting to his troubled followers about China’s ills on Twitter. He might even love the attention. Associating with these youngsters, piling national problems onto their personal ones and showing them to vent stress politically is his only real crime. Ai Weiwei’s outspoken contemporaries prove that intellectuals and artists in China have total freedom of expression, as long as they don’t arouse support from the sleeping masses. Via Twitter, 14 hours a day, Ai Weiwei was doing the latter. That’s why he is continually arrested, and his contemporaries are not.
P.s. Interestingly, the Christians also used Twitter to spread news of their gathering at Sinosteel (中钢).
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