Ai Weiwei Quotes
The Internet is the best thing that could have happened to China.
Ai Weiwei, Chinese Artist, Architect, Designer, and Dissident, “The Olympics Are a Propaganda Show.”, Der Spiegel, January 29, 2008
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time he wrote this, the Chinese government heavily censored the Internet. While there was an enormous unprecedented access to information, much was unavailable to most Chinese.
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. Ai grew up in the far north-west of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, for "economic crimes". He was detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.