Artist Says Tax Case Shows China's Dark Side

BEIJING (AP) — China's best-known artist dissident Ai Weiwei blasted his country's Communist government for losing its principles and using underhanded ploys to try to silence critics. The bearded artist, whose supporters say he was hit with a $2.4 million tax bill in retribution for his outspokenness and activism, also criticized fellow Chinese artists for failing to speak up while he was singled out. Yet Ai said he was optimistic about the country's younger generation in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press this week at his Beijing studio, where he talked about the English-language version of a Danish documentary released this week about his tax case. "From what we see today, (the government) has completely lost its basic principles," he said, referring to the frequent declarations of Chinese leaders that ruling Communist Party members are honest and above-board people. [...] a long-time government critic, he had been detained with other activists and dissidents amid calls for social and political reforms in China following the Arab Spring uprisings, but then was let go without charge. After his release, authorities slapped his company with a $2.4 million bill in back taxes and fines in a closed-door hearing. "The legal system is not legal," said Johnsen, the film's director who chronicled Ai's judicial fight, his hopes and frustrations, and his everyday life under tight government surveillance. In recent years, Chinese authorities have increasingly targeted activists and dissidents, as well as their relatives, on non-political charges such as disturbing public order or business-related misdeeds, instead of free speech and political dissent charges that would draw international condemnation.

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