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Ai Weiwei Under Arrest
<span style="font-weight: bold">Europeans</span> Call for Release of Chinese Artist
AP
German and French ministers have called for the release of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who was detained Sunday in Beijing. A groundswell of international support has grown, but nobody knows where he is. Last week he announced plans to build a new studio in Berlin.
The German and French governments are calling for the immediate release of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist who was arrested without charge over the weekend at an airport in Beijing. "I appeal to the Chinese government to urgently provide clarification, and I expect Ai Weiwei to be released immediately," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, in a statement on Monday.
Ai made headlines last week with an announcement that he wanted to build a major new Berlin studio. On Sunday he was detained at the airport while trying to board a plane to Hong Kong. Police raided his home and studio in Beijing, according to his wife, Lu Qing, and she herself was interrogated. She said Chinese authorities have still not told her where the artist is being held.
"They took the computer, computer disks and other materials," she told Agence France-Presse. "They refused to say why the search warrant was issued or why Ai Weiwei was taken away."
A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, Bernard Valero, joined Westerwelle's appeal on Monday, saying, "we are very concerned about the fate of the artist Ai Weiwei and we are following his situation and that of his family very closely. We hope he will be released as soon as possible."
<span style="font-weight: bold">The 53-year-old is famous for designing the "bird's nest" national stadium that became a centerpiece of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His installation "Sunflower Seeds" -- featuring thousands of tiny, painted ceramic imitation seeds -- is a current hit at the Tate Gallery in London. </span>He's considered one of China's most successful living artists, and he's known for criticizing Communist Party leaders in Beijing.
<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">have to admit i dont see the 'art' in the how much million ceramic seeds that were alllll HAND PAINTED...first thing i thought of wen i watched a documentary recently on him, was dat it probably took a lot of poorly paid Chinese workers a long time to paint dem... </span></span>
'His Whereabouts Are Unknown'
A groundswell of support rose Tuesday from international art figures from London to Hong Kong. Sir Nicholas Serota, who heads the Tate Gallery, along with the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, a friend of Ai's with a studio of his own in Berlin, joined a number of other artists and protestors in calling for Ai's freedom.
"The artist remains un-contactable and his whereabouts are unknown," said Serota on Monday night, according to The Independent in London. "We are dismayed by developments that again threaten Weiwei's right to speak freely as an artist and hope that he will be released immediately."
In January, the Chinese government raided and destroyed Ai's new studio in Shanghai, and last week the artist announced plans to open a large studio in Berlin. He told the German news agency DPA that he preferred to spend "as little time as possible" in Europe, but "there will be no choice if my work and life are somehow threatened."
During a 2009 trip to Germany he checked into a Munich hospital for emergency cranial surgery, which he told SPIEGEL was the result of a recent beating by police in China. Doctors said at the time that they had to relieve a cerebral hemmorhage on one side of his skull.
Ai's disappearance comes during a general crackdown on dissidents by Beijing. The so-called Jasmine Revolution in the Arab world -- the popular uprisings from Tunisia to Jordan since January -- have inspired a flurry of online activism in China. Over the last six weeks more than 100 activists, lawyers and writers have been detained or have simply disappeared, according to Amnesty International -- some of them just for using the words "Jasmine Revolution" in a Twitter feed.
"We've already seen the chilling effect the 'Jasmine Revolution'-related arrests have had on Chinese activists and 'netizens' over the past month," said Donna Guest, Amnesty's deputy director for the Asia-Pacific region. "Holding Ai Weiwei takes this to another level."
<span style="font-weight: bold"> he is a fascinationg person when u consider how he has thumbed his nose at the Communist regime for a longggg time...he refused to go to the Beujin games as he said they had become too political...he arranged ground roots support to gather the names of allll the children who were killed when their school building collapsed druing an earthquake due to poor building...the government wouldn't say how many died r identify them by name...he mounted an exhibition of school back packs that spelled out the disaster...he was beaten once by some policemen and while in the hospital wid his head bleeding etc he broadcast the whole thing using his cell phone...finally they bulldozed his studio which had taken him like 20yrs to finish...it was huge and was as big as a movie soundstage...he broadcast that also on the internet in real time
the silence of the US is telling since they champion human rights in Cuba another Communist state at every chance they get.,.
</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Europeans</span> Call for Release of Chinese Artist
AP
German and French ministers have called for the release of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who was detained Sunday in Beijing. A groundswell of international support has grown, but nobody knows where he is. Last week he announced plans to build a new studio in Berlin.
The German and French governments are calling for the immediate release of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist who was arrested without charge over the weekend at an airport in Beijing. "I appeal to the Chinese government to urgently provide clarification, and I expect Ai Weiwei to be released immediately," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, in a statement on Monday.
Ai made headlines last week with an announcement that he wanted to build a major new Berlin studio. On Sunday he was detained at the airport while trying to board a plane to Hong Kong. Police raided his home and studio in Beijing, according to his wife, Lu Qing, and she herself was interrogated. She said Chinese authorities have still not told her where the artist is being held.
"They took the computer, computer disks and other materials," she told Agence France-Presse. "They refused to say why the search warrant was issued or why Ai Weiwei was taken away."
A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, Bernard Valero, joined Westerwelle's appeal on Monday, saying, "we are very concerned about the fate of the artist Ai Weiwei and we are following his situation and that of his family very closely. We hope he will be released as soon as possible."
<span style="font-weight: bold">The 53-year-old is famous for designing the "bird's nest" national stadium that became a centerpiece of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His installation "Sunflower Seeds" -- featuring thousands of tiny, painted ceramic imitation seeds -- is a current hit at the Tate Gallery in London. </span>He's considered one of China's most successful living artists, and he's known for criticizing Communist Party leaders in Beijing.
<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">have to admit i dont see the 'art' in the how much million ceramic seeds that were alllll HAND PAINTED...first thing i thought of wen i watched a documentary recently on him, was dat it probably took a lot of poorly paid Chinese workers a long time to paint dem... </span></span>
'His Whereabouts Are Unknown'
A groundswell of support rose Tuesday from international art figures from London to Hong Kong. Sir Nicholas Serota, who heads the Tate Gallery, along with the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, a friend of Ai's with a studio of his own in Berlin, joined a number of other artists and protestors in calling for Ai's freedom.
"The artist remains un-contactable and his whereabouts are unknown," said Serota on Monday night, according to The Independent in London. "We are dismayed by developments that again threaten Weiwei's right to speak freely as an artist and hope that he will be released immediately."
In January, the Chinese government raided and destroyed Ai's new studio in Shanghai, and last week the artist announced plans to open a large studio in Berlin. He told the German news agency DPA that he preferred to spend "as little time as possible" in Europe, but "there will be no choice if my work and life are somehow threatened."
During a 2009 trip to Germany he checked into a Munich hospital for emergency cranial surgery, which he told SPIEGEL was the result of a recent beating by police in China. Doctors said at the time that they had to relieve a cerebral hemmorhage on one side of his skull.
Ai's disappearance comes during a general crackdown on dissidents by Beijing. The so-called Jasmine Revolution in the Arab world -- the popular uprisings from Tunisia to Jordan since January -- have inspired a flurry of online activism in China. Over the last six weeks more than 100 activists, lawyers and writers have been detained or have simply disappeared, according to Amnesty International -- some of them just for using the words "Jasmine Revolution" in a Twitter feed.
"We've already seen the chilling effect the 'Jasmine Revolution'-related arrests have had on Chinese activists and 'netizens' over the past month," said Donna Guest, Amnesty's deputy director for the Asia-Pacific region. "Holding Ai Weiwei takes this to another level."
<span style="font-weight: bold"> he is a fascinationg person when u consider how he has thumbed his nose at the Communist regime for a longggg time...he refused to go to the Beujin games as he said they had become too political...he arranged ground roots support to gather the names of allll the children who were killed when their school building collapsed druing an earthquake due to poor building...the government wouldn't say how many died r identify them by name...he mounted an exhibition of school back packs that spelled out the disaster...he was beaten once by some policemen and while in the hospital wid his head bleeding etc he broadcast the whole thing using his cell phone...finally they bulldozed his studio which had taken him like 20yrs to finish...it was huge and was as big as a movie soundstage...he broadcast that also on the internet in real time
the silence of the US is telling since they champion human rights in Cuba another Communist state at every chance they get.,.
</span>