THE Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei is under fire for making sympathetic comments about the Communist party’s authoritarian regime in a round of newspaper interviews given during a landmark trip to Germany.
Ai, 57, won a long battle with the Chinese authorities last month to regain his passport, which was seized when he was placed under arrest four years ago. The struggle to leave his homeland to join his partner and son in Germany has resulted in a change of tone from the flamboyant installation artist.
Ai appeared to hint at a secret bargain with Chinese officials to regain his passport, telling the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that he had “a basis of trust” with Beijing. “Otherwise they would never have given me my passport back,” he added.
A separate newspaper interview reversed criticism of Beijing’s totalitarian record — incensing his sympathisers and fellow dissidents. “If you look at the bigger picture, any country or political system has to preserve its stability,” he said in the interview in Die Zeit.
Advertisement
“Arresting a few people is not a big deal. There are far worse things.”
Fans accused Ai of “betrayal” and allies warned he was “scrubbing the floor for the government”. Ai’s Twitter page, which has 284,000 followers, was bombarded with anger and disappointment. “Ai Weiwei really was my idol,” one user tweeted. “Where will I find another idol?”
The escalating row over the remarks threatens to tarnish Ai’s reputation for principled dissent, which has seen him compared to the European anti-Communist activists Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa. Ai received the 2015 Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience award with the singer Joan Baez.
When Ai left China his first stop was Munich, where he was examined by the doctors who treated him in 2009 after he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage while being beaten by Chinese police. The artist then moved on to Berlin, where his partner, Wang Fen, and his son, Lao, 6, have been living for the past year.
Advertisement
Savouring his newfound freedom, Ai has been spotted at Sunday antiques markets, upmarket department stores and fashionable art galleries.
Dozens of selfies of his daily life in Berlin have been posted on his Instagram page. They show him hanging out with the great, the good and the beautiful, including Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of the Russian dissident band Pussy Riot, Daniel Brühl, one of Germany’s most famous young actors, and on a boat with socialite Benedikt Taschen, Germany’s leading art book publisher.
Ai has also been in his Berlin studio, preparing for his forthcoming show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in September, his first solo exhibition in the capital since his sunflower seed installation at Tate Modern in 2010.
Advertisement
The artist’s Tree sculpture — “eight enormous trees created by Ai Weiwei, each around seven metres tall, clustered around a marble couch” — is to be installed in the Academy’s outdoor courtyard.
A public outcry followed Britain’s decision to grant Ai only a three-week visa, and his leave to stay was extended to six months after a personal intervention by Theresa May, the home secretary.
The Royal Academy had faced criticism it was trading on his political reputation to raise £100,000 to “crowdfund” the show. “It’s little short of emotional blackmail to suggest I ought to pay towards the installation to show my support [for Ai Weiwei],” wrote one commentator.
Advertisement
With Ai’s own defence lawyer currently in prison, his remarks dismissing a roundup of human rights specialists has drawn scorn. Pu Zhiqiang was arrested in 2014 and has been refused visits from his family. In May he was indicted for posting messages on China’s equivalent of Twitter that the authorities said had “damaged the social order”.
When questioned about the arrests of scores of lawyers, Ai claimed they could use the legal system to walk free. “You said arresting a few lawyers is a step backwards,” he said. “Getting arrested is not really a problem. If I were to get arrested today, I wouldn’t be as nervous as I was a few years ago.”
In another interview Ai suggested the Chinese authorities were now following the rule of law when arresting opponents.
Ai has not repudiated his controversial statements but attacked Die Zeit for cutting a quarter of his words from the published interview, which he claimed was “a significant reduction and led to a dramatic change of content and character”.
Zhou Fengsuo, a leading dissident and former student leader who now lives in America, said Ai was insulting his allies. “It’s throwing a stone after a person who has fallen into a well,” said Zhou.
Advertisement
Eva Pils, a reader in transnational law at King’s College London and a specialist in legal rights in China, said Beijing’s tactics of putting pressure on Ai appeared to have borne fruit.
“I see Ai Weiwei as a victim of oppression, and it’s really important to keep that in mind,” she said.