While still facing down charges of tax evasion, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has now been accused by communist authorities of “producing pornography.” On Nov. 17 his assistant photographer was hauled away by police regarding a picture he took last year showing a naked Ai Weiwei with four naked women.
“I was asked to confess to how these pictures were shot, how it was planned, what the message was,” Zhao Zhao, the photographer, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Nov. 18. “[Police said] ‘If you showed this picture to 1,000 people, we can detain you for ten days. If even more people clicked on it, then it could be 3 to 5 years.’”
The police told him that the pornographic charges against Ai were a recent direct order from higher-ups, he said.
The picture, called “One Tiger, Eight Breasts,” features Ai Weiwei and four women, all naked. Netizens have suggested that it was meant to represent the relationship between the CCP and the eight “democratic parties” in China, which are allowed to exist as long as they accept the leadership of the Party.
According to Chinese law, transmission of pornographic content can result in up to two years in detention.
Ai Weiwei was arrested by police this April at the Beijing Airport and detained for 81 days. The regime accuses his company of tax evasion and requested that he pay 15 million yuan (US$2.4 million) in taxes and fines.
Chinese netizens began raising funds and in less than ten days he received more than 30,000 donations worth 8.69 million yuan (US$1.4 million).
In a similar outpouring the day after the recent rumors, hundreds of Chinese began uploading naked pictures of themselves to the Internet, to protest the charges.
Read the original Chinese article.
