Updated at 8:40 a.m. ET
Chinese authorities are razing one of the Beijing studios of dissident artist Ai Weiwei. He said that demolition crews showed up without advance warning, and have begun the process of tearing down the studio.
Ai has been a longtime critic of the government, and on Saturday, he began posting videos to his Instagram feed of the studio's destruction. "Farewell," Ai wrote. "They started to demolish my studio 'Zuoyuo' in Beijing with no precaution."
"We didn't receive any advance warning or announcement of the demolition," Ai told NPR. "We were required to move by a certain date, which we have not yet reached. The demolition came as a surprise."
Ai continued:
The son of famed Chinese poet Ai Qing, Ai is widely admired in China, and designed the "Bird's Nest" stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
It was that year though, in the wake of a massive earthquake in China's Sichuan province, that Ai emerged as an even more vocal activist and dissident. Collapsed buildings in Sichuan had buried thousands of children, and Ai began to speak as an advocate for them and their families, creating works of art in their honor. He has since criticized the Chinese government on a range of issues, from human rights to corruption.
In Beijing, the AFP reports that authorities have slated the neighborhood surrounding Ai's studio for redevelopment. According to the AP, Beijing has destroyed "large swaths of the suburbs over the past year in a building safety campaign."
Ai says the destruction of his studio is a result of the gentrification of Beijing, and in an interview, highlighted the needs of migrant workers, who he says are being forced out of the city:
Artnet has reported that China is abruptlyevicting galleries in Caochangdi, a Beijing arts district that Ai developed, "to make way for immediate demolition."
"Free speech and free expression have simply never existed in China or in its artist communities," Ai told NPR. "Those who do not belong to the establishment, including artists, are always the first to be discriminated against and sacrificed. Often, the authorities face no consequences in doing so."
"Cultural structures do not really exist in a communist society. Art is seen as either party propaganda or as Western spiritual pollution," Ai added. "The demolition of an artist's studio or the eviction of artists as a silencing strategy doesn't affect that society at all. It will remain the same society under one authority, one voice, and one ideology. It used to be called communism, but now it is state capitalism — a capitalism where the communists dominate both profit and power."
Artists' neighborhoods in Beijing have long been targeted for destruction because they are often hubs of political dissent and occupy land that can be sold for a profit by real estate developers. Artists living on that land can often face quick eviction.
In 2011 for an independent documentary, Ai spoke about the destruction of artists' neighborhoods and freedom of expression in China, saying, "If you are being treated unfairly, you have to let your voice out, and let other people know it. You cannot just be silent. "
He continued:
Police visited Ai's Beijing studio during the filming of that interview, and shortly afterwards, the government detained Ai for more than two months on charges of tax evasion. He has said the accusations were politically motivated. He subsequently paid a $2.4 million fine, and the government confiscated his passport, preventing him from travel for several years.
At the time, Ai said he had been beaten by police, put under house arrest, and the government installed cameras outside of his home, to monitor his movements.
On China's current crackdown on freedom of expression and civil society, Ai told NPR, "Any authority that cracks down on artists, journalists, intellectuals, and lawyers has completely lost its legitimacy to rule. It is evidence of vulnerability and fragility in facing the challenges of today and the future, and an inability to do so with a peaceful mind or a rational manner."
In 2015, Chinese authorities returned Ai's passport, and he moved to Berlin shortly afterwards, living in self-imposed exile. Ai has since turned his attention to the plight of global refugees, which is the topic of his latest documentary, Human Flow.
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