He was responding to a question about the cancellation of his exhibition by the Lisson Gallery in London in November following comments on social media referencing the Israel-Hamas conflict.
His post, which was subsequently deleted, suggested the “sense of guilt around the persecution of the Jewish people” had been transferred and used against the Arab world.
Referring to his own family’s exile when he was one year old, the activist said: "I grew up within this heavy political censorship.
“I realise now, today in the West, you are doing exactly the same.”
He drew parallels with the disastrous purge under Mao, which took China to the brink of anarchy.
Criticising the suspension of two New York University professors for comments related to Gaza, Ai said: "This is really like a cultural revolution, which is really trying to destroy anybody who have different attitudes, not even a clear opinion.
Ai’s art often addresses political issues in China and he has frequently criticised Beijing’s record on human rights and democracy.
My entire point is that he is able to say what he wants to say without being thrown into one of those camps.
Thus it is not exactly the same.
You seem to have a strange idea in your head that it is impossible to criticize America (he said the West as a whole, by the way) without comparing it to one of history’s worst dictatorships.
Believe it or not, it’s not a contest. You can criticize both and still admit one was worse.
Either that, or you know nothing about 20th century Chinese history.
Ah the enlightened take where censorship only applies if people get thrown in jail.
Nevermind them being deplatformed and their livelihood being taken away
Again- this is not a contest.
Let me ask you this- if censorship in the west was EXACTLY THE SAME as in Mao’s China, how were you able to post this on Lemmy?
Also- why is Rupert Murdoch still alive and publishing what Ai Weiwei has to say?
People are openly calling for Nazi style genocide on Palestinians, even in our governments.
And anyone who doesn’t support literal Genocide gets censored.
Censorship doesn’t just equate to being thrown in jail. The West wants their illusion of freedom of speech alive so people continue to defend it.
Also - Ai was platformed on Democracy Now! as well.
I’m afraid I’m unable to read your comment because it has been censored.
Maybe that means I’m posting from China because if a Chinese person posts on Lemmy their tweets don’t appear because the CCP censors them.
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What the hell. Why are you on a federated platform if you don’t want to see what your server federated with?
Go back to reddit, if you want to live in a curated bubble.
Cause tankies who are sympathetic to the CCP and russia, which is the mass majority of lemmy.grad and now lemmy.ml, need to be told to fuck off. BTW, lemmy.ml is real close to being defederated just like lemmy.grad was, because of the CCP propaganda that’s spewed.
Whoops I forgot that any criticism of the west enforcing Genocide makes me a Tankie that denies Genocide
Naa, we who live in the west criticize it all the time, what we don’t do is act like the CCP can do no wrong and bring up whataboutism to defend it, which is exactly what you’re doing here.
Yet again- it is not a contest. No one is denying that there is censorship in the West.
Censorship is not all that Mao’s China did. They threw people in camps or executed them for criticizing Mao’s government.
Do you not know what the words “exacactly” and “same” mean? Is that the problem?
That said, this is just a lie: “And anyone who doesn’t support literal Genocide gets censored.” The proof it’s a lie is your article, published by the largest private news organization on the planet, based in the West, not censoring him.
But I do enjoy you claiming someone getting their message across on mass media is being censored.
Which is also untrue because in the West we also execute people and lie about it. When someone blows the whistle they get thrown in jail. See Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. You act like people are free to speak about our war crimes while Biden is actively trying to throw people in prison for exposing them.
You must support actual Nazi style Genocide or you get deplatformed, demonitized and removed from government positions.
The irony is in how our government and media kept praising Ai for speaking out against censorship in China but then turned on him when he criticized subjects that we like to keep censored here.
Sky News is a UK outlet so it’s not American mainstream media covering this.
The punishments might be slightly different, but that is just so people like you keep screaming about “free speech”.
America is not The West. Stop ignoring the rest of the western world and pretend he said America. He did not.
He said this: “I grew up within this heavy political censorship. I realise now, today in the West, you are doing exactly the same.”
What you have shown is that you do not know what the terms “heavy political censorship,” “the West,” “exactly” and “the same” mean.
Either that or you’re pretending you don’t, but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.
Ah it’s only America that does this you’re right and so smart again!
And let’s not forget Elon Musket and Marcus Aurelius Zuckerbergus actively removing and censoring Pro-Palestine accounts.
I see, so you think what Mao did in China in terms of censorship was cancel art shows. Correct?
I see… so the West “has to look more democratic” than Mao’s China by… not censoring people or putting them in prison for criticizing Western governments?
Then it’s not “exactly the same as Mao’s China,” now is it?