POLICE STOPPED China’s most controversial artist Ai Weiwei from boarding a flight at Beijing airport yesterday and detained him, in the highest profile action yet in a clampdown on dissents that is casting a wide net.
Outspoken in his criticism of the ruling Communist Party, it has long been a question of when, not if, the authorities would haul in the 53-year-old artist.
“Every day many people ask me on Twitter: ‘How come they still have not come to you yet?’ I don’t know. But I think the possibility is high,” he said in an interview with Germany’s ARD radio on Wednesday.
Police also detained eight of his staffers, according to reports posted by his associates on his Twitter page, and surrounded his studio in Beijing’s Chuangyi art district, which is also his home.
His detention comes during one of the biggest round-ups of lawyers, activists and dissidents in years, as the Chinese government cranks up its crackdown on dissent to stop any contagion from the “Jasmine Revolution” protests in the Middle East and North Africa.
Ai’s mobile phone has been switched off since he was held at immigration while boarding a flight to Hong Kong. One official told Ai’s travelling companion that he had “other business” and could not board the plane.
Ai, who was involved in the construction of the Olympic stadium but subsequently disowned his contribution, has repeatedly placed himself at odds with the government, a dangerous position in a single-party state. He repeatedly said it was only a matter of time before he was arrested.
A stocky figure with a straggly beard, he is a mischievous character and very funny, although his art is steeped in politics and sombre in tone. His disdain for the ruling party is powerful, and he has repeatedly slammed the government for not respecting the constitution and for human rights abuses, saying it was riddled with corruption and run by people “acting like the mafia”.
With 70,000 followers, Ai is a Twitter star in a country that bans that social network. He is also a cultural blue-blood, the son of the poet Ai Qing, who was denounced during the Cultural Revolution.
For a long time it appeared that his status has stopped him from suffering the fate of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel laureate imprisoned for 11 years for subversion. In December he was prevented from leaving the country, as authorities feared he was trying to go to Oslo for the Nobel peace prize ceremony.
Pressure has been mounting on Ai for months now. In January, his Shanghai studio was demolished, without him being told until the day it happened.
Police burst in to his hotel room in Chengdu in 2009 and beat him so badly that surgeons in Munich later had to drill two holes in his head to remove 30 millilitres of fluid from his skull.
His phone has been tapped for years and he and his associates are under constant surveillance. He would invite the police watching his studio to sit in the office.
He has never shied away from controversial statements. During our last conversation several months ago, I pointed out how 2011 had no major international event, like the Olympics or the World Expo. What did he think would be the next big event in China? “The revolution. They always say there is silence before the storm.”