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Ai Weiwei Says He May Cancel Trip to Britain Over Visa Dispute Reversing Itself, Britain Grants Ai Weiwei a Six-Month Visa
(about 6 hours later)
HONG KONG — The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said on Friday that he might not travel to Britain, where he has a major art installation opening weeks from now, if the country does not relent in a visa dispute. LONDON — After a day of embarrassing criticism over its refusal to grant the dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei a six-month business visa and its assertion that Mr. Ai had lied on his application, the British government reversed itself on Friday and said he would get the visa he wanted.
Mr. Ai left China this week for the first time in four years after receiving his passport, which had been confiscated by the government in what he believed to be retaliation for his political activism. He flew to Munich, where he is seeing his 6-year-old son for the first time in nearly a year. Germany has given him a four-year multiple entry visa, he said. Theresa May, Britain’s home secretary, was not consulted on the decision by the British Embassy in Beijing to give Mr. Ai a visa good for only 20 days, a spokeswoman for the Home Office said in a statement.
His installation at the Royal Academy of Arts in London opens in September, but Britain denied him a regular six-month business visa over a dispute in the application process, involving whether or not he had a criminal record. Instead, he received an exceptional visa that allows him to stay in Britain from Sept. 9 to 29, the time of his planned travel. “She has reviewed the case and has now instructed Home Office officials to issue a full six-month visa,” the spokeswoman said. “We have written to Mr. Ai apologizing for the inconvenience caused.”
“The situation is very blurred,” he said by telephone from Munich. “If they do not change their position and only give me the time to stay there, then the decision is no, I will not go.” But there was no apology for accusing Mr. Ai of having lied on his visa application.
In a letter from the British Embassy in Beijing that Mr. Ai posted to his Instagram account, an official wrote, “It is a matter of public record that you have previously received a criminal conviction in China, and you have not declared this.” Mr. Ai said Friday afternoon that he had yet to receive official notice, but that he welcomed the decision. “Britain still has to support those very essential” human rights values, he said by telephone from Munich, where he arrived on Thursday to see his 6-year-old son, who lives in Berlin with his mother. “I’m glad they quickly solved this.”
The British Home Office said on Thursday: “All applications are considered on their individual merits and in line with the relevant legislation. Mr. Ai has been granted a visa for the full duration of his requested dates of travel.” The earlier decision would have allowed Mr. Ai to attend the opening of a major exhibition of his work in London at the Royal Academy of Arts in early September, but would not have allowed him to be in Britain during a state visit in October by President Xi Jinping of China.
Mr. Ai was held in Chinese custody for 81 days in 2011 but never formally arrested. The authorities pursued a tax case against a design firm that he is affiliated with, but not against him personally. He said that the authorities returned evidence from that case last week but still have not recovered the full $2.4 million in fines and back taxes that a court said the company owed. There was speculation that Britain, which has sought close economic and trade ties with China after a period of frostiness, was trying to avoid embarrassing Mr. Xi — either at Beijing’s request or without having been asked.
He said that a decision to not go to Britain would be as much about principle as about whether he would have sufficient time for his responsibilities related to the Royal Academy show. Britain’s Foreign Office denied any connection, but Mr. Ai was infuriated at the suggestion that he had lied on his visa application when he said he had not been convicted of any crime. Earlier on Friday, he said he was considering skipping Britain altogether unless the country relented.
“The reason for that is not about how many days I am allowed to be there,” Mr. Ai said. “China is a very different society, a very different judicial system with a different purpose, to use the law to silence freedom of speech. That can be used as an excuse for officials to stop people’s basic rights to travel.” “The situation is very blurred,” he said. “If they do not change their position and only give me the time to stay there, then the decision is no, I will not go.”
The dates of Mr. Ai’s British visa mean he would have to leave the country before a state visit by China’s president, Xi Jinping, in October. The British Foreign Office has denied any connection between Mr. Ai’s visa and the state visit, but Mr. Ai said he was concerned about the British government’s apparent willingness to appease Beijing. “I think they’re trying to use economic interests over an essential understanding of human rights,” he continued. “By using that bureaucratic ability, they put themselves in a very questionable position. Of course I’m an artist, but I use my life to protect essential rights. Nothing can be traded for those values.”
“I think they’re trying to use economic interests over an essential understanding of human rights,” he said. “By using that bureaucratic ability, they put themselves in a very questionable position. Of course I’m an artist, but I use my life to protect essential rights. Nothing can be traded for those values.”
He added, “I want to go to the show, but this is a matter of principle.”He added, “I want to go to the show, but this is a matter of principle.”
Mr. Ai, 57, plans to have medical exams in Munich, where he had emergency brain surgery in 2009 to treat a hemorrhage after he was beaten by the police in Sichuan Province. He said he also plans to visit parks and museums with his son, who he said slept soundly on Thursday night after his arrival. In a letter from the British Embassy in Beijing that Mr. Ai posted to his Instagram account on Thursday, an official wrote, “It is a matter of public record that you have previously received a criminal conviction in China, and you have not declared this.”
“He never had such sound sleep,” Mr. Ai said. “He often told me he had nightmares thinking the police would never let me out.” A tax case has been brought against a design firm with which he is affiliated, but not against him personally, and although a fine was issued, the matter has not been fully adjudicated and in any event is not a criminal case, said his former lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan.
Mr. Ai was held in Chinese custody for 81 days in 2011 but never formally arrested. He said the authorities returned evidence from that case last week but still have not recovered the full $2.4 million in fines and back taxes that a court said the company owed.
The Chinese government gave him back his passport only last week.