Ai Weiwei, an outspoken Chinese artist on the lack of human rights in China was detained on Sunday at Beijing’s airport as he prepared to leave for Hong Kong. He was taken into custody and there was no news about his whereabouts or situation until today. The Chinese authorities have declined to comment on Ai Weiwei’s disappearance, according to AFP.
Ai Weiwei, however, made a surprise appearance last February at TED through a secretly recorded video. In this video, Ai Weiwei shared his views about the present and future of China.
“Freedom of speech is not allowed. It is very hard to find individual expression through media in China. To help the change to become a more democratic society, we need to act and talk to young people to encourage people to be involved. Only when doing that, we can have civil society,” Ai said in a video played at TED.
Ai Weiwei believes that China will face a social and political shift in the near future. He hopes that China could one day allow freedom of speech, election and be free of corruption.
China is known for her tight control over the Internet. Last year, a Chinese Twitter user was sentenced one year of ‘re-education through labor‘ over a tweet that joked about the political situation between Japan and China. I wonder how the story between Ai Weiwei and China would turn out to be. Catch the video below and let us know your thoughts.
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