{"id":10142,"date":"2011-08-28T19:08:17","date_gmt":"2011-08-28T19:08:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-08-28T19:08:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-28T19:08:17","slug":"China-artist-Ai-Weiwei-calls-Beijing-a--nightmare-","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=10142","title":{"rendered":"China artist Ai Weiwei calls Beijing a “nightmare”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has called Beijing a “nightmare” and said China’s justice system cannot be trusted, in his first article for a foreign magazine since his release from detention in June.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outspoken critic of the Communist Party disappeared for nearly three months earlier this year before Chinese authorities, facing a global outcry, announced he had been detained for tax evasion and freed him.<\/p>\n

“The worst thing about Beijing is that you can never trust the judicial system. Without trust, you cannot identify anything; it’s like a sandstorm,” Ai wrote in an essay on his native city in the current issue of Newsweek magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“This city is not about other people or buildings or streets but about your mental structure… Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.”<\/p>\n

Ai, 54, whose art works have been displayed around the world, said his ordeal in police custody made him realize he was only a number in an anonymous system where “they deny us basic rights”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ai further painted Beijing as a city of<\/strong> “power and money” where “those who belong to the government, the coal bosses, the heads of big enterprises” entice foreign investors with their smart suits and business acumen.<\/p>\n

The essay, which risks further displeasing the authorities, follows a series of anti-government comments posted by Ai on Twitter, where he hit out at the treatment of colleagues and fellow dissidents in an apparent violation of the terms of his bail.<\/p>\n

Ai has been barred from leaving Beijing for a year following his detention on charges of tax evasion, which rights groups say was part of a wider crackdown on government critics amid official concern that unrest in the Arab world would spread to China.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source AP<\/em>
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