Tania Branigan, China correspondent for the Guardian
As I said yesterday in my post about Ai Weiwei‘s electrifying return to Twitter, the recently released Chinese dissident artist seems determined to speak truth to power, no matter what the personal cost. In his latest tweet, posted nine hours ago, he explains why:
If you don’t speak for Wang Lihong, nor for Ran Yunfei, not only you’re the sort that doesn’t speak up for fairness and justice, you have no love for yourself
A Twitter page that posts the English translations for Ai’s tweets is here. The translations can also be found here.
As always, the indispensable Tania Branigan of the Guardian is the go-to person for in-depth information about these latest developments. She identifies the various detainees about whom Ai has been tweeting, and she spoke directly to the artist about his latest act of political resistance.
Branigan writes:
Wang is expected to face trial within weeks for “creating a disturbance” after demonstrating in support of bloggers accused of slander after
writing about a suspicious death. Ran, a high profile blogger, was detained in March and later formally charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” [Both were mentioned in today’s tweet.]…Four of Ai’s associates—his friend Wen Tao, designer Liu Zhenggang, accountant Hu Mingfen and driver and cousin Zhang Jinsong [all mentioned in a previous tweet]—were held for around two months, and released shortly after him.
And here’s part of what Ai said to Branigan:
So many people were related to my case and were inhumanely treated for
so long … How could society and the system do this kind of thing and
use the name of justice?