'You either stay out or you go back, and I want to stay out – there is no other choice,' Ai Weiwei tells CLIFFORD COONAN
IT’S STILL only a few hours since controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was freed on bail after three months’ detention, and his voice on the phone is tired, cautious at first, then friendly.
So how is he after three months’ detention?
“I’m okay, I’m very happy to be home, to be free after such a difficult time.
“Now I’m on bail I’m not supposed to talk about anything,” he said.
One of China’s best known artists, he is famous abroad for his exhibitions at top galleries like the Tate Modern and Haus der Kunst.
Here in China he is best known for his work on the Olympic stadium.
And he is known everywhere for his iconoclasm.
The biggest catch in the recent dragnet of activists and lawyers and dissidents in China looked thinner but well, as he returned after nearly three months in detention.
Ai is now basically on probation for a year, probably on a form of bail that limits his movements to Beijing.
“I think it’s like a vacation for one year. It’s not anything you can choose. There is no other choice. You either stay out or you go back, and I want to stay out. There is no other choice,” he said.
You get the sense that Ai knows his situation is serious, and that he could be jailed again at any time.
In some ways the scene outside his Beijing studio and home looks very much like it did before his arrest, with two or three unmarked police cars hanging around with men sitting inside them.
The official version of events, carried on the Xinhua News Agency, is that Ai has confessed to tax evasion and that he was released because he had a chronic illness – in his case, high blood pressure and diabetes – and because his confession was made in the right spirit.
No one really believes the tax dodge accusations. Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before his vitriolic verbal and visual assaults on the Communist Party and China’s various social ills would lead to him being taken away.
Ai, after all, is the son of Ai Qing, one of China’s most famous poets, and a major domestic and international figure.
By arresting him, the Beijing government can show that no one has immunity and that the state can strike whenever it wants to stop dissent, international figure or not.
His detention prompted an international outcry, with the United States and other countries saying it was a sign of China’s deteriorating human rights situation.
This may have given the Chinese leadership pause for thought, although these days China’s growing strength means it does not respond to international pressure in the way it used to do.
It could well be a gesture to coincide with premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Hungary, Britain and Germany, where Ai had a lot of support.
This is a face-saving compromise, though what happens next remains unclear.
Scores of dissenting voices were rounded up during the current crackdown, and have been effectively muzzled, staying quiet because they fear broader consequences.
Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific deputy director, said Ai’s four associates, Wen Tao, Hu Mingfen, Liu Zhenggang and Zhang Jinsong, who are still being held, must now also be released, and said Ai’s freedom must be genuine.
“Ai Weiwei must now be granted his full liberty, and not be held under illegal house arrest as has been the pattern with so many others recently released from arbitrary detention,” she said.
Certainly, Ai is grateful for the fact that he was not forgotten during his three months in detention, and pointedly expresses this gratitude.
“Thank you and thanks for all your support over there during this time,” he said.
