Is Freedom of Speech an Extinct Human Trait (Or Was It Nonexistent in the First Place?)

After the police retained him at the Beijing airport on Sunday April 3rd and took him to an undisclosed location, the Chinese artist activist and philosopher Ai Weiwei has been gone without a trace; his studio has been sealed, while the majority of his assistants are also under investigation. The Chinese police have managed to bring in twenty more Chinese intellectuals and democracy fighters with great efficiency, just more proof how one of the largest world economic powers perceives democracy.

To remind ourselves, Weiwei is one of the loudest critics of the Chinese government, and was recently blacklisted during the “Jasmine Revolution”, a string of protests staged throughout Chinese cities in February this year, due to commenting events via his Twitter page. The Chinese authorities decided to censor any kind of mention of the word “jasmine”, including foreign journalists who attempted to follow the nation’s answer to its government. The reason behind Weiwei’s detention allegedly isn’t tied to the latest political disturbances, while his statement that “democracy is a universal human right, not only the right of Western nations,“ was more than enough for the Communist Party to realize that one individual is determined to place himself above the law. Weiwei has been brutally beaten by the Chinese authorities for the past few years, his atelier robbed, and he’s been under house arrest this past November.

*Tate Modern – The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei – Sunflower Seeds 2010

Expectedly, the world art and intellectual elite is requesting his liberation as well as that of the other fighters for democracy, while at the same time his controversial porcelain seed exhibition, manually painted and withdrawn from the exhibit area due to security reasons last fall, can be viewed again at the Tate Modern. It’s now possible to view the installation from a distance, i.e. from the Millenium Bridge across the Tate, much the same as democracy is viewed today.

*Ai Weiwei with Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron

The answer received from the Chinese Foreign Office minister’s spokesperson in view of the physical safety and whereabouts of the missing activists was as follows: “China is a law abiding country that protects its citizens and their basic human rights and freedoms – including the right to freedom of speech (sic!) – but all those who exercise their freedoms in a public space must respect the law and not harm the general public’s best interests while doing so.”