“Who’s afraid of Ai Weiwei?”
By Emily Lau, Vice-chairperson of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group
Delivered on 17 September 2011, The Sino-Global Discourse 2011, organized by the Institute of Cultural Diplomacy (ICD), Berlin, Germany
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Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure and an honour to be invited to speak at this conference, the aim of which is to examine the growing prominence of China on the world stage, the opportunities that this phenomenon presents, and how China can maintain its robust economic growth and social evolution to benefit the global environment.
To many people in the international community, China’s rise in the last few decades has been remarkable. Earlier this year, China overtook Japan to become the second biggest economy in the world. There is no doubt that the economic reforms adopted by Beijing in the past few decades have improved the lives of many Chinese people. According to the World Bank, since 1979 the economic reforms have lifted 400 million Chinese people out of poverty. But the fantastic growth has also created staggering problems of corruption and social disparity, and has led to gross violations of human rights.
China’s impressive economic performance has attracted many foreign politicians and business people to rush in to take advantage of the burgeoning market. In so doing, many of them are prepared to turn a blind eye to erosion of universal core values such as human rights, democracy and the rule of law, values that they themselves cherish and uphold at home.
Today I would like to talk about the human rights situation in China, and explore why it would benefit China and the international community if the Chinese Government were to improve its human rights record by respecting the basic rights of its own people.
The title of my lecture is “Who’s afraid of Ai Weiwei?” To many people in Germany, Ai Weiwei requires little introduction. For those of you who do not know him, he is one of China’s most prominent and provocative artists with a rising profile in the architectural world. He helped to design the Olympic National Stadium known as the Bird’s Nest for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
Ai Weiwei is known for his sharp tongue and is an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist regime. He has demanded democracy in China, criticized government corruption for playing a part in the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and supported intellectual Liu Xiaobo, a political prisoner who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last December.
On 3rd April this year, Ai Weiwei was detained by the authorities in Beijing as he tried to board a plane for Hong Kong. After he went missing for three days, the police admitted they were investigating him for “suspected economic crimes.”
Ai Weiwei’s arrest and detention sparked an international outcry. The United States, Britain and the European Union criticized Beijing’s crackdown on dissidents and activists. The German Foreign Minister summoned the Chinese ambassador to express his government’s concern. The outgoing US ambassador Jon Huntsman described him as one the activists who “challenged the Chinese Government to serve the public in all cases and at all times.”
Two days before his disappearance, Ai Weiwei spoke to German broadcaster ARD. He warned that “people with different minds and voices are being thrown into prison.” He said there were two surveillance cameras at his gate entrance, his phone was tapped and every message he sent on the microblog was censored.
“In many ways China is just like the Middle Ages,” he said. “China’s control over the people’s minds and the flow of information is just like the time before the Enlightenment. Writers, artists and commentators are detained or thrown into jail when they expressed their views on democracy, opening up, reform and reason. This is the reality of China.”
After detaining Ai Weiwei for 81 days, the authorities released him because “of his good attitude in confessing his crimes and a chronic illness.” However many people believe Ai Weiwei was released because there was little evidence to prove he has committed any criminal offence and also because of the huge international outcry. After all, the Chinese leadership is concerned about the country’s international image.
Thus it is of paramount importance that the international community should speak out when they see human rights violations in China. This is because human rights transcend national boundaries and the protection of human rights is everyone’s business. Sometimes when overseas organizations criticize the Chinese Government’s poor human rights record, Beijing accused them of interfering in China’s domestic affairs.
I reject this claim and urge the international community to continue to speak out. Beijing should know that if China wants to become a respected member of the international community, she must abide by the code of behaviour which is set out in the various United Nations human rights covenants.
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