Financial Times
Charles Clover in Beijing
July 23, 2015
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Ai Weiwei, the Chinese government critic and dissident artist, has been given his passport back after a four-year travel ban in what appears to be a deliberate move to ward off international criticism ahead of a state visit by China’s President Xi Jinping to London in October.
Mr Ai posted an Instagram photo of himself holding a Chinese passport with the caption: “Today, I got my passport.” According to a representative, he plans to visit Berlin to have a medical check-up and see his son, who has lived abroad for 11 months.
Mr Ai was originally detained at Beijing’s airport in April 2011 as he prepared to board a flight to Hong Kong, and was held without charges for three months, after which he was released but his passport was confiscated.
His detention, while never publicly explained by the government, was thought to be in connection with a series of demonstrations in a dozen Chinese cities that year inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Mr Ai had been vocal on social media promoting the protests, but had not taken a particularly active public role.
Chinese authorities later alleged he had evaded taxes and levelled a $2.4m fine for tax evasion on his design group — charges he denies and describes as politically motivated. After release from detention he was subsequently investigated for pornography and illegal exchange of foreign currency, although he has not been charged.
Mr Ai’s works are particularly popular in Europe and experts said that the decision to return his travel documents could be motivated by a concern to minimise protests when Mr Xi goes to London later this year.
When he was first detained in March 2011, the Tate Modern gallery in London displayed the words “Release Ai Weiwei” in the light box on its roof which faces the Thames river.
According to news reports, Mr Ai plans to attend a major exhibition of his works at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in September, a month before Mr Xi’s visit. Mr Ai did not return calls on Thursday.
Maya Wang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the decision to return Mr Ai’s passport may have been an effort to balance out criticism of the recent crackdown on human rights lawyers, which saw more than 200 detained. Roughly 20 human rights lawyers remain in custody.
“It was only a matter of time before the authorities had to return his passport, and he has not been as outspoken lately,” she said. She added that his high public profile was the cause of some embarrassment. “He is very well known, and when he is absent from his exhibitions overseas, it is bad publicity for the government.”
Mr Ai has managed to bridge the chasm between the establishment and China’s dissident intelligentsia in a way that has been matched by few. He was artistic director for the “Bird’s Nest” stadium — the site of the 2008 Olympic Games — but his art also has featured an edgy, conceptual and subversive quality that has displeased the Chinese authorities.
Since his detention, he has further pushed political boundaries with exhibits abroad. The installation S.A.C.R.E.D., which was displayed in Venice in 2013, features six fibreglass dioramas that detail his experiences in detention, including interrogations
