Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei gets six-month visa to UK

Britain said Friday it is granting dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei a six-month visa, apologizing for rejecting his application over an alleged criminal conviction.

On Thursday Ai disclosed that the British embassy in Beijing had turned down his request for a business visa, saying he had failed to disclose a criminal conviction. It gave him a 20-day visit instead.

Ai was jailed for almost three months in 2011 amid a crackdown on dissent. His company was later accused of tax evasion and ordered to pay $2.4 million. Ai's lawyer said that was not a criminal case.

Britain's Home Office said Friday that Home Secretary Theresa May had told officials to grant the six-month visa. It said it had written to Ai "apologizing for the inconvenience caused."

The high-profile artist has angered authorities by speaking out about a number of national scandals in China, including the deaths of large numbers of students in shoddily built schools that collapsed during a massive earthquake in 2008.

The government has blacklisted Ai from any mention in state news outlets, and he is not allowed to post anything on China's social media. 

Authorities detained Ai without official charges for about three months in 2011. His passport was confiscated when he later attempted to leave the country, and his design firm was later slapped with the $2.4 million tax bill, which he fought unsuccessfully in Chinese courts in 2012. The artist said at the time that the ruling came from a “barbaric and backward legal system,” and he alleged that the charges were politically motivated.

“This is a signal that the state can seize anybody who has a different political opinion. They use tax or whatever reason to make them look bad or to crush them,” he said.

Ai’s work is very popular in the United Kingdom. In 2010 he filled a vast hall at the Tate Modern gallery with 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds. Visitors were initially invited to walk or lie on them, but after a few days the ceramic dust was judged a health hazard, and the exhibit was cordoned off. It still attracted large crowds.

Being unable to travel while his passport was held did not stop Ai from working abroad. Collaborating with Swiss architects via Skype, he designed a pavilion for London’s Serpentine gallery.

He also remotely built seven art installation in 2014 for Alcatraz, California’s former maximum-security prison, which is now a tourist attraction.

Al Jazeera and wire services