[Reader-list] Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei harassed in Chengdu by Police

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

  Dear all,

Please find below a shocking report of an attempt to intimidate and  
silence a very well known Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, by police in  
Chengdu, capital of China's Sichuan province, in the course of a  
trial of the dissident activist, Tan Zuoren.

Yet another instance of the way in which the Chinese state acts to  
stifle the growing body of dissent in China.

best

Shuddha
--------------------
Chinese Artist  (Ai Weiwei) Says He Was Barred From Rights Advocate’s  
Trial
New York Times, August 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/asia/13china.html? 
_r=2&ref=global-home


By EDWARD WONG
Published: August 12, 2009
BEIJING — A prominent Chinese artist and frequent critic of the  
Communist Party said he was hit by police officers and put under  
detention in his hotel room in western China on Wednesday when he  
tried to go testify at the trial of a civil rights advocate.

The artist, Ai Weiwei, best known for helping to design the Bird’s  
Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, said dozens of police officers  
barged into his hotel room early Wednesday and the rooms of others  
who had traveled to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, to  
testify on behalf of Tan Zuoren, the rights advocate.

The opening session of Mr. Tan’s trial began Wednesday morning and  
ended hours later without a verdict. The courtroom was closed to the  
public. Mr. Tan, a well-known writer, has been charged with  
subversion. He is believed to be on trial because of his role in  
pushing for an official investigation into widespread school  
collapses during the Sichuan earthquake last year, and for trying to  
organize a group event in June to commemorate the 20th anniversary of  
the massacre of civilians by government forces during the Tiananmen  
Square protests of 1989.

Earlier this month, another rights advocate, Huang Qi, went on trial  
on a charge of possessing state secrets. Like Mr. Tan, he pushed for  
the government to investigate the school collapses.

During the earthquake last year, thousands of students were killed  
when school buildings in Sichuan and other provinces crumbled, even  
as surrounding buildings remained standing. Grieving parents said  
shoddy construction and corruption were responsible, and demanded  
that officials investigate. Local governments went to great efforts  
to silence the parents, ordering the police to detain them, or  
handing out cash payments in exchange for the parents’ dropping their  
complaints.

Initial reports from the official news media said about 7,000  
schoolrooms collapsed and as many as 10,000 children might have died.  
In May, the government released the first official toll of students  
killed, saying 5,335 were dead or missing.

Earlier this year, Mr. Ai sent volunteers to Sichuan to collect the  
names of students who had been killed. He began posting the names on  
his blog and kept a running tally. Government censors then blocked  
his blog, Mr. Ai said, while police officers in Sichuan detained some  
of his volunteers and beat a few of them.

Mr. Ai said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that he had arrived  
in Chengdu the previous day to testify on behalf of Mr. Tan but that  
the judge did not allow him to. He said that he had planned to appear  
at court anyway but that he and 10 or 11 of his volunteers were  
prevented from doing so by the officers who barged into their hotel  
rooms and kept them under watch.
“They left a couple of hours later, but some stayed in the hallway  
and some in the lobby to keep an eye on us, to make sure we failed to  
attend the trial,” Mr. Ai said from the hotel.

Mr. Ai posted grainy digital photographs on Twitter of police  
officers in the hotel hallway.Someone answering the phone at the  
police headquarters in Chengdu declined to comment. The court did not  
allow anyone to testify on behalf of Mr. Tan at the trial on  
Wednesday, said Pu Zhiqiang, Mr. Tan’s lawyer.He said he would submit  
a written defense statement to the court by Monday.“However, unless  
this is an extremely rare case, Tan will be found guilty,” he said.

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting, and Zhang Jing contributed  
research.



Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net