"Despite the relief that Ai Weiwei is back with his family, the fact remains that his freedom is still marred by oppressive restrictions," said Westerwelle. The foreign minister added that he hoped Ai would be able to accept an invitation from Berlin's University of the Arts to take up a post as guest professor.
According to a Tweet from lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan the Chinese tax authorities have claimed the alleged tax evasions by Ai Weiwei make a total of 5 million Yuan (772.000 $) plus a 7 million yuan (1.080.800 $) fine.
Activists welcomed the releases but said the international community should not take the developments as signs of softening in the government's attitude toward its critics, noting that Hu was freed only after he had completed his 3 1/2-year sentence for sedition. Ai was never formally indicted and was mysteriously released under a form of bail that restricts suspects' movements to their home city for one year.
Philip Bishop/Artists Speak Out spoke to Kacey Wong, Hong Kong based artist and activist. Wong tells a story which points out the situation Ai is in and the concrete restrictions he and his staff face:
“They are being monitored twenty-four-seven.” Wong said the news on Sunday in Hong Kong was that when Ai Weiwei went to a park in Beijing to talk to Chiao Chiao, one of the video artists Ai works with, Chinese security called and reminded Ai Weiwei that “that wasn’t part of the deal”.
On Twitpic (@dupola via @wangxiaoshan) you can see two current photos of Ai at home, here and here.
artnet.com has a commentary by Barbare Pollack on the release of Ai (recommended reading, though a couple of days old): Ai Weiwei HOME, BUT NOT FREE
Freelance journalist Wen Tao who was detained on April 3, the same day as Ai Weiwei, is now released. Liu Yanping, a volunteer working for Ai told the press on the phone that Wen's girlfriend told her Saturday that he had been released.
"All of the people connected to the case have been released," Liu told Reuters by telephone. "That's a big relief. But I do think the Ai Weiwei studio's work will remain suspended for now," she said, adding that she was referring to Ai's politically-charged activism, not to his artistic work.
According to a Tweet by Chinese lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan Ai's accountant Hu Mingfen and designer Liu Zhenggang are out and home now. Still there is no information about journalist Wen Tao. After the release of Ai's cousin and driver Zhang Jinsong Wen Tao now is the last of Fake Studio people whose whereabouts remain unclear.
Nicholas Bequelin, senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said that Ai's release did not mean the government was easing up on its crackdown.
"We're still at a high point of the repression against critics and rights activists in China. The government has achieved its aim ... that is to send a message that the authorities can arrest anyone at any point. His arrest was arbitrary, his detention was arbitrary and his release is arbitrary."
Globalpost interviewed filmmaker Alison Klayman about Ai's release and their first contact on the phone: Ai Weiwei Speaks!
Tim Hancock, Campaigns Director at Amnesty International UK, said:
“Ai Weiwei is the best-known victim of a crackdown that has seen over 130 bloggers, lawyers and government critics detained, intimidated and silenced, since February this year. This is just the tip of the iceberg and David Cameron should ensure that the pressure on the Chinese government to improve their human rights record is maintained. The right to freedom of expression is enshrined in the Chinese constitution and the people who have been targeted in this crackdown, had done nothing more than peacefully express an opinion which happened to be disagreeable to their government. They must be released immediately, and without conditions. Online calls for protests in China inspired by the ‘Arab Spring’ have made the authorities nervous and impulsive. The ensuing onslaught of human rights abuses and disregard for due legal process, has been to their shame and David Cameron has a duty to raise the issue. He could start by asking about Wen Tao, Ai Weiwei’s assistant, who was taken into custody at the same time as Ai. No-one knows where he is, or what has happened to him.”
The "Cycling Tour for Human Rights" arrived in Philadelphia:
Breaking: Ai's cousin and driver Zhang Jinsong, who went missing on April 10, is released on bail as well and already home according to a Twitter message by Ai's studio assistant @duyanpili. Apparently he too lost a lot of weight.
Ai's mother, Gao Ying, said her nephew Zhang Jinsong, who had worked for Ai, returned home in a good mental state but having lost around 9kg. He went missing a few days after his cousin. "They have returned home and the family can see each other. We are all very happy. For anything that happens there must be an ending, and now we are happy with the result of what has happened to us." Earlier she said she was delighted that Zhang was to be released "since he got into the case because of my son". The 43-year-old cousin, known to friends as Xiao Pang, travelled and worked closely with Ai. Three other associates who went missing shortly after Ai remain unaccounted for.
Update
Despite some rumors that surfaced on Twitter yesterday (and were rejected shortly after) nobody was really prepared for the news that set off an avalanche of 'breaking-news' articles, messages and photos posted all over the internet. So, at first it just felt good and relieving to be in this flood of twitterish online-joy. But to see the short video of Ai Weiwei getting out of a car and rushing towards his studio entrance, immediately brought back all the questions everybody was thinking of all the time he was missing, but forgot in the first moments of relief. Ai himself didn't look very comfortable or relieved as he rejected the questions journalists have to ask. "I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine" he said and grudgingly replied to the question on the conditions under which he was held: "No, I cannot say anything, really sorry". He looked weary and considerably thinner as he raised his hands reluctantly. What did the regime's henchmen really do to him? Where was he held and under which conditions? The weight they must have put on him just before his release must be enormous. Surely he knew that his four friends and colleagues were still in their hands and a possible release dependent on his compliance. Indeed, to expect anything else was naive if not foolish, but his restraint differed so much from his former outspokenness that it almost came as a shock. So, nobody outside knows anything precisely besides the authority's announcement through Xinhua, which is blatantly stalinistic. He was released because of his "good attitude in confessing his crimes". The deal is clear and familiar: Self-incrimination for physical integrity, and it is not a compromise as most commentators state. The Party was even so cocky to pretend mercifulness in saying "a chronic disease" was another reason to let him go. They took the chance to show generosity, but what choices did Ai Weiwei have? He is now marked anyway: He is a tax evader, it's official, he said it. Who (in China) cares that he was "not even formally arrested, not to mention indicted"?
What is Ai facing now? The BBC reports, a spokesman of the foreign ministry said today that the bail's terms are valid for 12 months and require him to report to police when asked. "During this period, Ai Weiwei is still under investigation. Without permission... he is not allowed to leave his area of residence". He said "area of residence" meant Beijing and stressed that Mr Ai was not confined to his house. So, where is the actual change? He has the freedom to move in a cage under heavy surveillance. Not good for an artist of Ai's profile. Austin Ramzy, Beijing correspondent for Time.com, pointed out the situation's ambivalence by saying that "Ai recovers at home as a somewhat freer man". His situation for the next twelve months will be constantly insecure, the authorities may come for him whenever they feel the necessitiy to remind him of the gag order he is under. And since this one year "probation" is illegal anyway there is no formal way to eventually lift it or guarantee it will end at all. Ai told Tania Branigan of the Guardian on the phone, he could not comment further on his detention as he had been released on bail. This imposed silence for sure includes channels like Twitter which he used heavily to communicate. His account is dormant since April 3. "It's wonderful that he is home with his family, it's not wonderful that he has lost his freedom of speech and other expressions." Jerome Cohen, "the dean of Chinese law specialists", summarized the situation on CNN.
The question that most commentators are speculating about is: Why was he released, and why now? What was the role of the outside world? Russell Leigh Moses writes in The Wall Street Journal that "Ai’s incarceration was a direct expression of the battle being waged in Beijing over who gets to rule the country in the coming years." This point of view has been expressed several times during Ai's detention with - naturally - little evidence of its validity. Moses insists on the CCP's stubborness and its general disrespect for international pressure and judges claims by human rights organizations "that Ai’s freedom was due in direct measure to the force of global opinion" to be erroneous. But no international human rights organization actually claimed that, nobody was so presumptuous to declare Ai's release to be a triumph. (Except Change.org - what I just learned from ChinaGeeks). On the other hand it seems pretty obvious that Wen Jiabao's trip to the UK and Germany played a role for last night's change. Especially these two countries' administrations have criticised China over Ai's detention. So they got rid of a problem to spare the delegation and the visited governments from having to deal with this annoying human rights stuff. What is actually better - from a CCP perspective - than a confessing tax evader, that is generously released but silenced? What did it cost them?
To somehow repeat Jerome Cohen's statement: It is wonderful that Ai is home and out of a situation where he could be subject to physical or mental harm. But the restrictions he faces - like a lot of other dissidents under house arrest in China - are not acceptable. Zhang Jinsong, his cousin, is released on bail, but three of his colleagues - Wen Tao, Hu Mingfen and Liu Zhenggang - are still missing. The Chinese authorities tried to end this but there is no reason to stop campaigning and calling for Ai Weiwei and his colleagues to be released.
Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer and friend of Ai who has spoken to him twice since his release yesterday, says he is unclear what the report means by saying Ai has confessed. “Tax evasions should be investigated by the tax bureau, but the tax bureau hasn't given any conclusions as of today,” Liu told TIME.
BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing police department said Wednesday that Ai Weiwei has been released on bail because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes as well as a chronic disease he suffers from.
The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said.
The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., a company Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents, police said.
Amnesty International is calling for the immediate release of Ai Weiwei’s four associates Wen Tao, Hu Mingfen, Liu Zhenggang and Zhang Jinsong, who all disappeared into secret detention after Ai was detained. ... “While Ai Weiwei’s release is an important step, he must now be granted his full liberty, and not be held in illegal house arrest as has been the pattern with so many others recently released from arbitrary detention.” said Catherine Baber [Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia Pacific.]
Associated Press:
"I'm sorry I can't (talk), I am on probation, please understand," Ai said, speaking in English.
Jerome Cohen: "As often happens with sensitive cases, it was too hot to handle and they had to find a way out,"...He said Ai was most likely released on a form of bail that restricts suspects' movements to their home city for one year. However, authorities can reopen the case at any time, meaning Ai faces the ever-present threat of being detained again on the same accusations.
Ai's release might also have been a face-saving move, coming just days before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was due to travel to Hungary, Britain and Germany, countries where supporters of the artist have been vocal in their condemnation of his detention.
After nearly 3 months in detention in China, his whereabouts unknown, reports today indicate that Ai Weiwei has been released,” said Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum Director. “This has positive implications not just for Ai Weiwei personally, as we are concerned for his health and well-being, but also for international perceptions of China. As an artist, his work stands for individual expression, and we hope his release has delivered a new promise of creative potential for him and other artists there.
The Wall Street Journal reports on the conditions that come with Ai's release:
"I can't say much. I can say I'm out. I'm on bail. But I can't say anything more under the conditions of my release," he told The Wall Street Journal by telephone. Asked how long the media ban was in place, he said: "One year, at least."
'As Ai Weiwei has been granted bail, so long as he doesn't leave the limits of Beijing city, he is completely free,' lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan, a close friend of Ai, said on his Twitter account. 'Love,' rights activist Zeng Jinyan wrote on her Twitter account in her single-character reaction to Ai's release. The Chinese character for love is a homophone for Ai that was popularized in a campaign for his release during his 80 days in detention. ... 'It will be difficult to sleep tonight,' said activist Zhao Lianhai, adding that he planned to open a bottle of wine to celebrate Ai's release.'I am really uncomfortable,' said another activist, Liu Shasha. 'Those of us on the outside had done too little for Ai Weiwei,' said Liu, who received a surprise visit from Ai after plain clothes police had kidnapped and tortured her in Beijing last year. 'In the end Ai has come out (of detention) humiliated,' she said.
Commentary
"Well, apparently China has bitten the bullet and humiliated itself..."
But if Ai himself is staying quiet, plenty of commentators aren't. Here are some of the perspectives being offered online as to the meaning of Ai's release...
“We hope that Ai’s health has not deteriorated too much and we wish him a swift recovery,” Reporters Without Borders said. “However, we are worried about some of the Public Security Bureau’s claims, especially regarding a confession. Given the length of the time he was held incommunicado, light must be shed on the circumstances in which this confession was obtained. Cases of violence against people held incommunicado have been reported. And Ai?
“His release does not mean the end of his problems. We fear that the authorities will deploy an entire legal arsenal in order to convict him of an ‘economic crime.’ As they have done with others in the past, the Chinese authorities could try to sentence him to a spell in prison or an exorbitant fine.
