CHINESE STATE MEDIA BRIEFLY POSTS CHARGES AGAINST AI WEIWEI

The Chinese state media posted a dispatch online late Friday announcing that Ai Weiwei is being charged with “huge amounts” of tax evasion and that Ai’s company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., had “intentionally destroyed accounting records” and committed other criminal acts. The report also noted that Ai has been “legally placed under supervised residence” and that “authorities have protected his rights to family visits.” Barbara Demick of the Los Angeles Times reports that while the New China News Agency dispatch appeared late Friday it was later removed from their site.

Liu Xiaoyuan, lawyer and close friend of Ai who was also recently arrested and released, posted on his blog Saturday that the charges seemed designed to justify Ai’s arrest and “restrict his personal freedom.”