Xinhua: Chinese Artist Suspected of Economic Crimes
Chinese official media say artist Ai Weiwei, detained Sunday at Beijing’s international airport, is under investigation for suspected economic crimes.
The official news agency Xinhua made the terse announcement Thursday. It said police are investigating the 53-year-old Ai “in accordance with the law.”
Ai, an internationally renowned artist who helped design Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium, has not been heard from since authorities detained him Sunday while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong.
The police also raided his studio and questioned his wife and his colleagues.
Ai’s wife said officers took his discs and hard drives and did not say what they were looking for and where they were taking him. She described the situation as very serious.
Human Rights Watch Wednesday called for Ai’s immediate release, noting that such arrests are often the prelude to criminal prosecutions. The statement says the government’s detention of the artist appears to have been carefully planned.
The United States, the European Union, Britain, France, Germany, Australia and Taiwan have been among the first to condemn Ai’s arrest.
China defended the arrest of Ai, suggesting that international criticism of the detention is an attack on China’s social values and legal system.
China’s ruling Communist Party responded to the criticism Wednesday, saying that Ai has frequently come close to the “red line of Chinese law” and engaged in actions that are “ambiguous in law.” In an editorial published in the party organ the Global Times, officials said that Western criticism of the arrest is aimed “at disrupting the attention of Chinese society.”