Ai Weiwei sagt, dem Westen fehle die moralische Autorität, Peking in Bezug auf Rechte zu kritisieren

But now Brits can travel to China without a passport (rolls eyes)

Fair point, but that’s an opportunity to be better and claim the authority for yourself.

„Ai Weiwei, the Chinese dissident whose activist art has made him Beijing’s best-known critic, said on Thursday the West should examine its own human rights record before condemning China, as the British prime minister visits his homeland.

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„But today I changed my mind, completely,“ Ai said. „The West (is) not even (in a) position to accuse China. (They must) just check on their record (of) what they did on international human rights, (their) freedom of speech record.“

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Ai, in London hosting events for his new book „Censorship“, said Western leaders raising issues such as human rights, free speech and censorship would be seen as deeply hypocritical and would „make people laugh“.
He pointed to how the West handled the case of Julian Assange, who returned to Australia in June 2024 after a plea deal ended his imprisonment and a 14-year legal battle over the release of classified U.S. military files.

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Nevertheless, Ai said that, based on business interests, Starmer’s decision to visit to China was „rational and practical“. He called it a „very good move“ that would benefit Britain and be well received in China.“

A great warning, to those who are blind to what has been happening for a long time now. Look at what is happening in the US, look at who is getting elected parliaments across the EU and other nations who supposedly represent freedom and rights. It doesn’t take a revolution or invasion to change things for the worse, merely the public directing blame onto „others“ and accepting more and more extremist rhetoric and lies by public figures and/or elected officials as okay and not grounds for rejection.

Edit: it’s funny, all these comments just attacking China, or even worse, Ai Weiwei.

It demonstrates the warning perfectly. If we have no moral standing to criticize rights violations, then not only are we failing to protect our own rights, but we also do nothing to advance the rights of others either when we open our mouths.

Fix our own house lest we all be swept away with no point of refuge anywhere. Only if we can lead by example, can we also provide help and a voice to others.

Edit 2: Geez, it’s depressing the number of users absolutely embarrassing themselves thinking he’s pro-CCP. If only there was a way to easily look someone’s history up before commenting and publicly showing off complete ignorance…

As for those who say they don’t let the BS of the West slide either, good for you. Obviously the message isn’t for or about you/your government, assuming you’re being truthful, so why feel so attacked, unless you feel guilty about something?

If your argument is, well „the West“ is a lot of different nations, obviously he’s not going to list out each and every country in such statements, else no one can ever use generalizations ever, and going after that rather than the message says it all.

Edit 4: TL;DR It’s not whataboutism or who is worse, it’s a message and warning about how far the West has fallen in the past few decades, and if you do not see it, that is one of the reasons why we are here now, because such things are being dismissed as, well, someone else is doing worse, so we’re doing just fine.

Independent of the „West“’s record, most people do in fact have a moral obligation to criticize China on their crimes against humanity.

Just like China has the moral obligation to criticize anyone else performing crimes against humanity, like their close ally Russia that they have ceaselessly supported.

China fund Russia to invade Ukraine. China actively planning to invade Taiwan. China has dozens of fighters invading Taiwan airspace daily. China brutally terrorized Tibet, Xinjhiang, HK. China arrest anyone who oppose the government.

Criticize the US all you want. But the „West“ does not only include the US. I don’t see EU, UK, Canada, Japan doing these kinds of shit

What is this „moral authority“ people speak of? Where does this authority come from?

I honestly thought Ai Weiwei was the name of some Chinese AI platform.

How about this, why don’t we criticize every nation when they violate human rights and stop with the „what aboutism“? Yes, our shit stinks, so does yours. Instead of saying mine’s okay because yours is okay, how about we both flush our shit down the toilet?

With that logic nobody can say anything about anything.

Would’ve been closer to wrong 30 years ago, but not too far from spot on now unfortunately

Then why doesn’t he leave Portugal and go back to live in china?

People can be hypocrites and correct when they criticise others.

That smells like argumentum tu quoque.

After being placed under arrest and having his passport and laptop confiscated, Ai fled China to the West. Since then, he has been sheltered, supported and elevated to a rarefied position of respect in society, where he is free to pursue his artistic expression without fear of persecution.

It’s not that I expect him to be *grateful* but some appreciation of the difference between the freedoms he enjoys here, compared to the oppressive society he fled, would be nice to see at least.

Bah fuck off, Aiweiwei!

I’m so fucked tired of this dude jesus Christ what is he whining about tod… Oh wait I actually agree

The 2010s are calling, they want their Assadist propaganda back

Ai Wei Wei became a super rich person (supported by the west) with too much free time and not much interesting to say.