Daily commentary about China by TIME correspondents.

Ai Weiwei's Blogs Shuttered; He Declines to "Chat" With Police, Not Politely

It's been a long time coming, but the irrepressible artist and campaigner for truth about the collapse of schools in the Sichuan earthquake Ai Weiwei (see our story about his project and transcript of our interview here) finally received a visit from National Security agents, who wanted him to come in for a "chat" (often the euphemism is a "cup of tea"). They wouldn't identify themselves, as is their usual practice. But Ai is a different animal from the usual human rights lawyer or dissident. He has built his campaign on his public prominence and his outsize personality and it's no surprise that not only did he refuse to have the "chat", he called the police emergency line and filed a report against the agents. There are translations of his report of what happened next (he blogged about it and it's vintage Ai; it includes him attempting to kick down a door in a police station) and comments by others all over the internet including an excellent post on danwei.org, here. So far, the score seems to be:

Ai 1-Huge State Security Machine 0

although if his blogs stay shut hat could tie things up. Further down the road it's hard to see the Ai holding his own but you never know. People like him can be game changers.

  • Print
  • Comment
Comments (13)
Post a Comment »
  • 1

    [...] you may have already seen elsewhere, Ai Weiweis blog has been closed. Well, the one hosted on Sina, anyway. His bullogger [...]

  • 2

    Another good news from China. Another 30 people didn't die in a mining incident in Sichuan, and another 59 didn't get hurt in the same incident. As for the other 101, they just survived, and didn't die either.

  • 3

    China is proposing to keep Korea Peninsula a non-nuclear zone. Of course, non-nuclear means no nuclear weaponry not under Chinese control, and no nuclear weaponry that are not aiming at US, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, etc., and no nuclear weapon that targets Chinese locations, including all Chinese Economic Exclusion Zones, such as the Arctic Ocean, the North Sea, South Pacific, etc. Niceties are all in the details.

  • 4

    Denmark is hurting the feeling of Chinese again by having Danish officials meeting the DL. Chinese government will go ballistic real soon now.

    While the DL is in Europe, may be he will find the time to visit each and everyone of the European countries just to make China's day complete.

  • 5

    The VIIV movement student leaders will appear together in Washington DC. Chinese government will get really furious at the US for allowing such freedom of expression and freedom of movement not allowed in China. US is really hurting the feeling of China.

  • 6

    Another indication of a great victory in China. Number of students registered to take Gaokao in Hunan dropped the first time this year. This is a good indication that the population control effort is working, way ahead of schedule.

  • 7

    Warning - this picture can be too violent for some

    Students killing PLA's in 1989:

    http://tinyurl.com/kl9gvj

  • 8

    In order to support one of the Chinese government's argument about the correctness of using military force in suppressing the student patriotic protests 20 years ago, the Chinese government is enacting a law making becoming rich after the crime as justification for murder, rape, theft, robbery, attempted murder, causing serious bodily harm during a criminal act, etc. This law will be become effective in just a few days.

    Furthermore, Chinese government will put history text book publishers in jail for including any events in their books that is over 20 years old. All events that are over 20 years old must be referred to more recent events that glorifies the success in China.

    Being raped by Chinese government officials is now called "special services" in all entertainment establishments, as ordered by the Chinese government. People refusing to offer such service will be put into mental hospitals for refusing such honor. Any journalists found talking to such crazy people and their relatives will be beaten up as usual.

  • 9

    Watching this, the social condition, not the protest, reminds me of China during the 20's, 30's and 40's. When will there be another 1949 ?

    http://tinyurl.com/nrdtea

  • 10

    South Korea invaded China and planted their flag:
    http://tinyurl.com/ktd38b

  • 11

    [...] background on Ai Weiwei’s recent trouble with the law: Coverage and translations on Danwei Coverage on TIME’s China blog Coverage and translation in China Digital Times Share this [...]

  • 12

    [...] dreaded words 此博客已被关闭, "this blog has been closed" if you try and access it now; see here for our past postings on his efforts to tally the number of children who died in the earthquake [...]

  • 13

    [...] dreaded words ???????, “this blog has been closed” if you try and access it now; see here for our past postings on his efforts to tally the number of children who died in the earthquake [...]

Add Your Comment:

You must be logged in to post a comment.
The China Blog Daily E-mail

Get e-mail updates from TIME's The China Blog in your inbox and never miss a day.

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
VICKI ESCARRA, head of food-bank network Feeding America, which is logging record donations amid the recession; an estimated 1 in 6 Americans went without enough food at some point in 2008