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Tuesday, 17 May 2011 14:57

Ai Weiwei allowed to see family

Ai Weiwei plays with his installation Sunflower Seeds, at its opening in the Tate Modern Ai Weiwei plays with his installation Sunflower Seeds, at its opening in the Tate Modern REUTERS

Mr Ai, the creator of the Tate Modern’s Sunflower Seeds exhibition, was allowed to spend 20 minutes with his wife, Lu Qing, at a secret location on Sunday afternoon, helping to dispel online rumours that he had been tortured.

“He seemed conflicted, contained, his face was tense,” Lu told the Associated Press, “I could see redness in his eyes. It was obvious that without freedom to express himself he was not behaving naturally even with me, someone from his family.”

She added that the people who arranged the visit showed no identification and warned her not to speak about anything except family or health matters.

“We could not talk about the economic charges or other stuff, mainly about the family and health,” she said. “We were careful, we knew that the deal could be broken at any moment, so we were careful.”

The visit came as a relief for other members of his family, including Mr Ai’s elderly mother. “The rumours that we've heard about him being tortured have been too much for us to take, but now seeing is believing,” said Gao Ying.

Fears for Ai’s physical safety had mounted in recent weeks after online reports that he had been coerced into “confessing” after watching a video of another “disappeared” dissident, the human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng being tortured with an electric shock baton.

China has faced mounting international criticism over its detention of Ai Weiwei, who was taken last month during a widespread Chinese clampdown on lawyers, bloggers and artists apparently provoked by the fears that Middle East street revolutions could spread to China.

The novelist Salman Rushdie and the sculptor Anish Kapoor have headed calls from the international artistic community to free Ai Weiwei and urging governments to be more vocal in condemning his arrest.

China has responded by angrily rejected US and European fears that it is “backsliding” on human rights, describing such criticisms as “condescending” and warning strongly against any interference in its judicial sovereignty.

Ai, 53, is officially being investigated for “economic crimes” however his friends, family and colleagues all believe that his detention is because of his outspoken criticism of China’s ruling Communist Party and the failings of the one-party state.

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