DHARAMSHALA, July 31: China’s best known artist and a fierce critic of the authoritarian government in Beijing, Ai Wei Wei, has said the denial of six month visa to him by UK is a denial of his rights as an ordinary citizen. “This decision is a denial of Ai Wei Wei’s rights as an ordinary citizen,” said Ai, who had criticized the Chinese leadership during 2008 protests in Tibet and also over the spate of self immolations by Tibetans, on Instagram.
In an intimation letter posted on Instagram by Ai, the UK Visas and Immigration Department had cited Ai’s not declaring a previous “criminal conviction” as the ground for the denial.
Ai has been granted visa to travel to Britain from Sept. 9-29, a duration much shorter than his requirement in the visa application. Critics allege Prime Minister David Cameron of putting trade before human rights in dealing with China as Chinese president Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit UK around the same time as Ai’s exhibition at Royal Academy of Arts. However, British Embassy denied the accusations saying they have given Ai visa to be present for his exhibition.
In April 2011, Chinese police imprisoned Ai on “politically motivated” charges of tax evasion; preventing him from boarding a flight when he was finally released after 81 days in custody, he was forbidden from leaving Beijing for a year. (He has since been given permission to travel domestically.)
The artist has continued to speak out against Chinese government censorship and repression, often through social media and through his art.
The artist gained international prominence in 2008 as one of the designers of the Birds Nest stadium for the Beijing Summer Olympics, but later refused to attend the opening ceremony of the games, declaring them “a tool for propaganda.”
Following the widespread Tibet uprisings in 2008 against Chinese rule, Ai had told reporters that simply blaming the Tibetans for the protests would deepen “hatred” among the Han and the Tibetan people. “The Tibetan are now simplistically being blamed and scolded for infringing the law,” Ai had told the Foreign Policy. “I do not think this can solve the problem, because this will only deepen the hatred amongst the Han people and the ethnic minorities, thus further deepen their gap.”
He proposed that the Han Chinese must stop looking upon the minorities as the slaves whom they freed and admit to mistakes committed by them in the past. “They (Tibetans) have their own religion, their own cultural heritage and their own way of thinking. We have never fully understood their religion and their lifestyle,” the artist had said. “Historically, we destroyed their temples and statues, this is a basic fact.”
Ai arrived in Munich, Germany, on Thursday to see his son. He said he is pleased to be able to travel out of China again after Chinese authorities returned his passport to him last week. “I have no plan now, I just want to meet my son,” told reporters. “He lives in Berlin and he came to pick me up. I’m sorry I don’t want to let him wait. I haven’t seen him in a year.”
