{"id":10991,"date":"2011-10-31T18:11:59","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T18:11:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-10-31T18:11:59","modified_gmt":"2011-10-31T18:11:59","slug":"China-artist-Ai-Weiwei-gets-multi-million-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=10991","title":{"rendered":"China artist Ai Weiwei gets multi-million tax bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Chinese authorities ordered artist Ai Weiwei to pay 15 million yuan ($2.36 million) in alleged back taxes in what the vocal rights activist called an effort to &#8220;crush&#8221; him.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The tax bill comes after Ai was released in June from 81 days in secretive police custody, a detention authorities said was over tax evasion but during which he said he was repeatedly interrogated over his calls for human rights.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ai<\/strong>, 54, a globally renowned conceptual artist who is famous for his part in designing Beijing&#8217;s &#8220;Bird&#8217;s Nest&#8221; Olympic Stadium, said he may be able to appeal against the tax bill, but only after it is paid.<\/p>\n<p>He was seeking to consult lawyers and tax experts, he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>His mother has offered to sell the house left to the family by Ai&#8217;s father, the late Ai Qing, a well known poet praised by the Communist Party, but who also suffered political persecution.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ai called the tax an &#8220;injustice&#8221; and alleged it was a political move by the government to silence him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Police who took Ai into custody early this year met with the artist on Monday and urged him to abide by the tax ruling, he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ai <\/strong>said the tax was being charged to him as &#8220;the actual controller&#8221; of the Beijing FAKE Cultural Development Ltd, a company where he works but which is owned by his wife.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ai<\/strong>, whose detention sparked outrage around the world, was released in June in a move authorities said was due to his &#8220;good attitude&#8221; in admitting to the charges against him, his willingness to repay taxes he owes and on medical grounds. He has diabetes.<\/p>\n<p>Following his release from detention, <strong>Ai was warned not to publicly discuss his case or accept interviews from foreign journalists.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Source AFP<\/em><br \/>\n<!--break--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese authorities ordered artist Ai Weiwei to pay 15 million yuan ($2.36 million) in alleged back taxes in what the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1-150x110.jpeg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1-130x90.jpeg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1-150x110.jpeg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Chinese authorities ordered artist Ai Weiwei to pay 15 million yuan ($2.36 million) in alleged back taxes in what the","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":142,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg",258,110,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1.jpeg",258,110,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pay_1-150x110.jpeg",150,110,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}