It was a turbulent year for China: We’ve seen strict lockdowns, one of the most important party gatherings in 30 years, an uproar on the streets and an unexpected end of zero-Covid. What surprised you the most this year in China and would you consider 2022 a milestone/a game changer in recent Chinese history, domestically and globally?
What happens today in China speaks for itself. Despite seeming clarity, both onlookers and active participants, both inside and outside China, are somehow confused. Confusion results from the country’s unreasonable decision-making and -implementing that is disconnected from common sense and science. No one knows why the dynamic zero-Covid policy had to be implemented; these measures very brutally obliterated basic attributes of human existence and left people unsupported by families, communities, friends, and medical systems. In absolute terms, people were governed like animals, which surprised us all.
Traditionally, humanity has been abundantly reflected upon in Chinese culture, both by regimes and by commoners. What China experienced in the past three years during the pandemic is unprecedented.
The sudden reopening is in contradiction with the government’s previous logic and abruptly betrays the general public’s confidence in the government and its policies. It also results in an enormous amount of Covid cases; almost everyone has been infected with Covid. There is thus a lot of panic and death. It brings the legitimacy of the regime and its policies into question once again.
Do you share the belief that people in China could consider the sudden end of the government’s zero-Covid restrictions as proof that protests do work? Do you see a new self-confident civil society on the rise? Or rather regret that the protests have unleashed a monster, in form of a sudden spike in sickness and Covid-deaths (ergo the government was right after all)?
I do not think there are any so-called civil rights movements in China. The reaction that we saw was like the reaction we would have when our hand gets caught in the door or when we bump our head on something. There are no conscious civil rights movements in China because there are no “citizens” as defined by Western society, referring to individuals who are aware of their source of information and make their opinions known in order to trigger reactions that will benefit society. China has always been under high-pressure censorship; all information received, and all expressions are heavily censored. Dissenting opinions are deleted and blocked, and people with dissenting opinions are arrested and imprisoned.
So, it is very wrong to think that the reopening means that the regime has softened its stance. The Chinese government is extremely confident in all aspects, and this will be reflected on their governance in the future.
Xi Jinping’s handling of Covid and the sudden end of the restrictions seem helpless, contradictious and chaotic from the outside. Is this a misconception of foreign China-watchers? Do you believe there is a strategy or a calculated outcome that the Chinese government is after? And since international flights could resume without quarantine measurements as early as January 2023: can the world go back to business as usual with China soon?
The international media coverage of China will always be wrong regardless of perspective. How do you judge a disorderly government that is operating without logic? All your judgment will be proven wrong.
The policy that is implemented today does not mean that the regime is yielding to the protests. In fact, all the protestors have been arrested, and arrests are still ongoing. People do not react much to that. The main source of worries in China comes from economic problems, and these problems cannot be solved by the Party’s political correctness.
International society’s business relationships with China will resume to a level almost like before the pandemic because international trade depends on China to a large extent.
What would be your advice to people in China that still want to protest and demand long-term change?
I do not have advice to give. I once tried hard myself, held aspirations for change, and worked hard for it. At the moment, those who made the same kind of effort are in prison. Under a regime like that, nothing can really work. Autocratic regimes are there to crash down any need of building a civil society.
You once said political elites should be humbled by the power of art when it comes to social change. Do you perceive the white sheets of paper, the many memes and word-play-criticism on Chinese social media as some sort of artistic expression as well?
I don’t think they are artistic expressions in a self-conscious way; these expressions are the way they are for lack of a better option. Besides expressing the wish for free expression, they embody an extreme kind of helplessness
What are your expectations and your biggest hope for China and the world in 2023? What are the greatest dangers we need to address immediately (Taiwan, Ukraine?)?
I hope that in 2023, at the post-pandemic time, China can return to a semblance of normality. Regarding Taiwan, the PRC regime is striving for a solution, but I think the issue will persist for a long time. The issue of Taiwan is an international problem.
The greatest dangers today remain the conflicts between two worlds: the domineering West with its old kind of logic and its concepts of globalization v.s. newly developed countries including China, Russia, among others that seek further development and propose a different kind of order. It is difficult to reconcile these two worlds. In the future, this problem will become more prominent.
You left China years ago. What do you miss the most and are you ever afraid you’d lose touch with Chinese society and social developments while living abroad? Under what circumstances would you move back to China?
What I miss is not China itself, but rather my right to travel freely. This right includes being able to go back to visit my relatives and friends
You lived in Berlin between 2015 and 2019. Your comments about Germany being authoritarian and hostile towards foreigners have been widely discussed and also politically instrumentalized. How do you feel about that outcry today, do you still feel misunderstood and a victim of a hypocritical perception of what being an outspoken artist means?
As an artist, the first thing to consider is how to truthfully express my feelings. Authoritarian traits of Germany as rootedness and reality can be observed by everyone. It is a cultural problem, instead of something that can be changed by a person or at a certain period. In every country there are thoughts of authoritarianism, autocracy, and even Nazism. It’s just that every country expresses these thoughts under a different form and to a different degree. Germany, in this respect, shows key attributes of these thoughts, in my opinion. Every sentence of my criticism is right.
You are still one of the most quoted persons of Chinese origin in German media, your voice counts when people want to understand China better. You also defended the Olaf Scholz trip to Beijing after the party congress. What would be your advice now for German and European politicians when planning their “China strategies”?
I never defended Olaf Scholz. What I said was that his behavior as a politician was not much different from other politicians that exist today. Germany is merely not hypocritically ingratiating itself with political correctness. It rather strives to meet their needs for their own interest. This does not deserve compliments. What needs to be advocated is political dialogue. A lot of countries seem to hold different opinions on the surface, but they make great efforts to humor China. Essentially, they are all the same. German politicians are not different from other politicians in Europe.
The German and European politicians do not need any advice for their strategies; no one needs any advice for any behavior, in fact. Their behavior comes from their survival needs. Politicians’ existing framework and survival needs are the main determinants of what they do.
Ai Weiwei, artist, born in 1957, currently lives in Portugal. In his works, he controversially deals with current social issues. In 2011, he was imprisoned in China for several months and subsequently banned from leaving the country. From 2015 to 2019, he lived in Berlin and taught at the University of the Arts. He then moved to the United Kingdom.
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