Handmade Signs Support Chinese Dissident

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who had been jailed by Chinese authorities, was recently released for purported tax evasion, though it is widely believed that his arrest was politically motivated. Ai cannot leave Beijing without permission or give media interviews for one year. When he leaves his home, he is trailed by plainclothes police.

Ai’s supporters created handmade signs that read, “I love you Ai Weiwei” in English and Chinese and posted them on the door of his compound. The Daily Beast reported that these supporters were pursued by plainclothes police. The officials had previously told the news outlet they were drivers, not cops.

Three of Ai’s associates are still missing, according to Amnesty International. The organization recently reported that Ai was arrested as part of a wave of government crackdowns in the wake of Middle East uprisings that could have spread to China.

Ai has been jailed in the past, and described being severely beaten by government officials in a 2009 Newsweek essay, “An Artist’s Ordeal:” In the early morning hours of Aug. 12 [2009], I was asleep in a hotel room in Sichuan when violent banging on my door abruptly awakened me. Roughly 30 policemen barged into my room and began pushing me. When I argued with them and asked for their ID, they beat me. They pinned my arms and someone punched me in the head. A month later I nearly died from a brain hemorrhage.