Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has told a German newspaper that he now has a new, more positive relationship with the Chinese authorities following the recent return of his passport after four years.
Associated Press reports that in the interview for the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung published on Wednesday, the artist explains that the passport’s return had no conditions attached.
AP reports that he is quoted as saying: “They [the Chinese authorities] know that I want to make China into a better country, that I am concerned about the young generation. There is a basis of trust, otherwise they would not allow me, the former enemy of the state, my exhibitions; otherwise they would not have returned my passport.”
The artist, who was in Munich for medical reasons and to see his young son, also stated that he was promised that he would be allowed to come back to China and that he was “a free person”.
Ai Weiwei is set to travel to London in September for the opening of a major solo show of his work at the Royal Academy, which opens to the public on 19 September. Last week he was granted a six-month UK business visa following an intervention by the home secretary Theresa May. His application had initially been declined, resulting in the granting of a 20-day visa.
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