Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei is back in the news

November 1, 2011

The Chinese artist, who was held at an undisclosed location earlier this year, is back in the news for tax evasion. Previously, Weiwei, an artist critical of the Chinese government, was released after 81 days of detention. In his bail agreement, he was to stay off twitter and to remain in the capital for a year. However, in August he began posting on twitter and published an article in Newsweek. Now the Chinese government claims that Weiwei owes $2.4 million in back taxes and has two weeks to pay the fees. This new figure is larger than the original $770,000 that the government claimed Weiwei owed. Weiwei insists that not paying the fine is more about the principle than about the money. However, when pressed he is unsure of how he will come up with the money.