BERNHARD ZAND interviews AI WEIWEI
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Beijing: “The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.”
In a SPIEGEL interview, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, 57, discusses the continuing repression faced by civil rights activists in China, why he believes progressive change in the country is inevitable and shameful human rights violations in the United States.
SPIEGEL: Ai Weiwei, Amnesty International will present you with its “Ambassador of Conscience Award” this week in Berlin — another honor you will be unable to accept in person because your government still does not allow you to travel abroad. What would you do if your passport were returned to you?
Ai:I would check if all the data is correct and if the passport is valid (laughs). No, I would call my son, of course, who lives with his mother in Berlin and misses me. It is painful for a father to be so limited and far away from your son. He once remarked to his mother: “I’m sure, they will never give him his passport back. I had a dream about this!”
SPIEGEL: Your son Ai Lao is six years old.
Ai: Yes, and he is an emotional and imaginative child. When he tried to cheer me up, he said: “In fact, your persecutors aren’t that much better off than you. You may have to run away from them — but they have to run after you all the time, too.” That really cheered me up and gave me a fresh perspective: My minders may be just as frustrated as I am. And my angst and my insecurity reflect the state’s angst and insecurity. The state is scared too.
SPIEGEL: Over the past two-and-a-half years, the human rights situation in China has deteriorated. Why does the new administration arrest so many of its critics? Why doesn’t it allow even a bit more free speech?
Ai: I am not surprised by this, I have experienced even much worse times before. Of course, you ask yourself: Is the government so harsh for tactical reasons or is there a deeper ideological reason for this? In the end, I think, the state’s rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.
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