Ai Weiwei 'Confessed,' Will Pay Back Taxes, Official News Agency Says; a Yearlong Ban on Tweets, Speaking to Media
By JEREMY PAGE
Chinese authorities have released on bail Ai Weiwei and imposed a media ban on the artist. The U.S. Federal Reserve downgraded its assessment of the U.S. economy, which could impact the flow of capital in Asia. WSJ's Jake Lee and Peter Stein discuss.
China's state-run Xinhua news agency said Mr. Ai was released Wednesday night because he "confessed" his alleged crimes, agreed to pay back taxes he was accused of evading, and was suffering from a "chronic disease."
Mr. Ai said his health was fine and thanked reporters for their support as he returned to his studio late Wednesday with his mother and his wife, according to witnesses. He added that he wasn't able to say more under the conditions of his bail.
"I can't say much. I can say I'm out. I'm on bail. But I can't say anything more under the conditions of my release," he told The Wall Street Journal by telephone.
Asked how long the media ban was in place, Mr. Ai said: "One year, at least."
Reuters
Ai Weiwei waves from his Beijing studio after his release. Family members said China never officially informed them of his detention.
Mr. Ai's unexpected release appeared to be designed to curtail widespread international criticism, but left many questions unanswered about his 11 weeks in extrajudicial detention and his future as an artist and activist.
His release came two days before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is due to begin a trip to Europe that includes Britain and Germany, two countries whose governments and artistic communities had been particularly outspoken in calling for Mr. Ai's immediate release.
The move was greeted with cautious optimism.
A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she welcomed the release, but he said that it is only a first step and that the accusations against Mr. Ai have to be resolved in a transparent fashion by the judicial system.
Mark Toner, a U.S. State Department deputy spokesman, said, "It's always a good thing when an individual who is only in prison for exercising [his] internationally recognized human rights is released."
"But there's obviously more individuals who are being held who we want to see emerge," Mr. Toner added.
The media ban on Mr. Ai suggests that China's increasingly powerful security apparatus is determined to silence prominent critics of the Communist Party, especially online, to ensure stability in the run-up to its 90th anniversary on July 1, and to a once-a-decade leadership change next year.
Outspoken Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei released by government authorities after nearly three months of detainment. Video and image courtesy of Reuters.
He was the highest-profile of several dozen dissidents—including many of China's leading human-rights lawyers—who have been extrajudicially detained since appeals for a "Jasmine revolution" in China began circulating online in mid-February.
Mr. Ai, 54 years old, had been thought for a long time to be immune from such treatment because his late father, Ai Qing, was one of Communist China's most famous poets, whose works have often been quoted by Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen.
Mr. Ai's family members say Chinese authorities never officially informed them that he had been detained and never detailed the charges against him, in what many legal experts describe as a deliberate violation of judicial procedure designed to intimidate other government critics.
Lu Qing, his wife, was allowed a 15-minute meeting with her husband at an undisclosed location near Beijing last month. After the meeting, she said he appeared to be well-cared-for and wasn't being held in an official prison.
State media and some Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that Mr. Ai's case is political. They say he was being investigated for economic crimes that included evading taxes through a company that handled his work, and for illegally destroying documents.
Xinhua said on Wednesday that Mr. Ai "has been released on bail because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes as well as a chronic disease he suffers from." It didn't elaborate on the illness.
Relatives say Mr. Ai suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.
"The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes evaded," the report quoted Beijing police as saying.
It also quoted the police as saying that Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., a company Xinhua said Mr. Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a "huge amount of taxes" and to have intentionally destroyed accounting documents.
Mr. Ai's relatives have denied those charges, and have said that the company in question is registered in the name of his wife.
Several of Mr. Ai's work colleagues were also detained when he was taken into custody and over the next few days. There was no immediate word on their fate.
Write to Jeremy Page at jeremy.page@wsj.com
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