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    June 22, 2011

China Frees Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei

   VOA News
   Photo: AP
   Activist artist Ai Weiwei (R) shakes hand with unidentified foreign
   journalists gathered outside his home in Beijing, June 22, 2011

   Chinese state media say internationally known artist and dissident Ai
   Weiwei has been freed after nearly three months in detention.

   Xinhua news agency says he was released after confessing to tax evasion
   and because he suffers from a chronic illness.
   Ai, whose works have been exhibited all over the world, was taken into
   detention in early April. Human rights activists, fellow artists and
   several foreign governments, including the United States, called for
   his release.
   In the past several months, China has arrested scores of dissidents,
   rights activists, lawyers and others. It also has clamped down on the
   news media, including foreign journalists and the Internet, in what
   many regional analysts say may be an effort to make sure the popular
   uprisings in the Middle East this year do not spread to China.
   Rights activists say Chinese officials often use charges of economic
   crimes to silence government critics.
   This development comes ahead of a high-level U.S.-Chinese diplomatic
   meeting in the Pacific state of Hawaii on Saturday.

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