Ai, 53, one of China's most famous and controversial artists, was put under house arrest at the weekend as police prevented him from attending an event at his new Shanghai studio which is set for demolition.

He also is an outspoken critic of the country's Communist rulers and urged British Prime Minister David Cameron not to mince words with the leadership in Beijing when he arrives on Tuesday for a two-day visit.

Western leaders "must insist on human rights issues, that it is inadmissible for citizens to be imprisoned because they think differently," Ai told AFP in a telephone interview.

"We want to hear them bring up these issues, see their lips move," he said.

"I don't know how the British prime minister will react. But in varying degrees, the American, French and German leaders betrayed the values which are most treasured by humanity."

The United States, France and Germany have led calls for the release of jailed Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, but when officials or politicians come to China, their voices are more muted.

US President Barack Obama spoke about his belief in "universal rights" when he visited China a year ago, but activists said he did not go far enough.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not speak publicly about rights issues during an April visit, and President Hu Jintao's visit to France last week resulted in more than 20 billion dollars in contracts for French firms.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to China in July saw the world's top two exporting nations sign a series of deals reportedly worth several billion dollars. She publicly raised the issue of greater market openness -- but not rights questions.

"The Americans or Europeans that trade with China are in fact trading with a group of people who turn their backs on the most fundamental values," said Ai, who currently has an exhibition at London's Tate Modern.

"This trade harms the interests of each ordinary citizen in China. They should keep that in mind," he said.

"If these politicians cannot manage to understand the problems at hand, they would do better not to come to China to do business."

In a commentary published in the Guardian, Ai wrote: "Cameron should say that the civilised world cannot see China as a civilised country if it doesn't change its own behaviour."

Ai's house arrest came amid a widespread crackdown on dissidents, lawyers and professors after Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month.

While the artist was not allowed to leave his home over the weekend, others including reporters were able to visit him.

"My house arrest was supposed to last until midnight last night. In fact, the police left at about 11:00 pm," Ai told AFP.

Ai had planned a feast for supporters at his Shanghai studio on Sunday as an ironic celebration of a decision by authorities to demolish the building -- despite having originally asked him to build it.

Supporters said on Twitter that hundreds had shown up at the studio.

Ai said the order came after he became increasingly critical of Shanghai's policies, writing in particular about activist Feng Zhenghu, who was blocked from returning home from Japan for months.

In a telephone interview with AFP on Sunday, Ai branded the nation's government a "dictatorship" and said the Internet would bring the current Communist regime to an end.

"This society is not efficient, it's inhuman in many ways politically," the artist said.

"The government, the whole system... sacrifices education, environmental resources and most people's interests just to make a few people become extremely rich only because they are associated with the government.

"The Internet is the best gift to China -- this kind of technology will end this kind of dictatorship," he said.

earlier related report
British PM on trade-boosting visit to China
Beijing (AFP) Nov 9, 2010 - British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in China on Tuesday on a bid to win trade deals to boost his country's fragile economy -- but differences over human rights issues could overshadow the trip.

Cameron, accompanied by 43 bosses from some of Britain's biggest companies plus four ministers, says he wants to take his country's relationship with the world's second-largest economy "to a new level" on the visit.

In a comment piece published in the Wall Street Journal, Cameron said he expected to see "new contracts worth billions of dollars" signed during his two days in Beijing, which come ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Seoul.

But his efforts to build lucrative ties with Beijing on his first official visit face being eclipsed by increasing calls for him to issue a stern rebuke to Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao on their human rights record.

Cameron is the first Western leader to visit China since jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 8 -- an honour hailed in the West but decried by Beijing as tantamount to "encouraging crime".

Liu, 54, was jailed in December for 11 years on subversion charges after co-authoring Charter 08, a bold petition calling for democratic reform in one-party China that has been widely circulated online and signed by thousands.

In the Wall Street Journal article, Cameron said he would raise difficult issues such as human rights "with respect and mutual understanding, acknowledging our different histories."

That may not be enough to silence increasing calls for a tougher line.

On the eve of Cameron's visit, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, an outspoken critic of the Communist government, insisted that Western leaders on trade trips to China must publicly air rights issues.

Western leaders "must insist on human rights issues, that it is inadmissible for citizens to be imprisoned because they think differently," said Ai, who was placed under house arrest at the weekend but freed late Sunday.

Further heightening tensions, countries including Britain have said they will not heed a Chinese call for Western diplomats to steer clear of the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in December.

Cameron was instead keen to emphasise the potential gains for Britain going into the visit, which he said featured "one of the biggest and most high-powered British delegations ever to visit China."

"We aim to deliver more than 40 specific agreements across the whole range of our bilateral relationship, from trade to low-carbon growth, to cultural and education initiatives," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Such deals would be concluded in a bid "to take Britain's relationship with China to a new level and to achieve strong cooperation on our shared economic and political interests," he said.

Trade between Britain and China was worth 51.8 billion dollars last year and Cameron wants to double this by 2015.

Cameron's coalition government, which took power in May, is searching for new sources of economic growth after unveiling the deepest public sector spending cuts in decades last month in a bid to tackle a record deficit of 154.7 billion pounds (249.3 billion dollars).

Britain emerged from a recession linked to the world financial crisis at the end of last year. Its economy grew 0.8 percent in the third quarter, compared to 9.6 percent for China.

Cameron is due to hold talks and have an official banquet with Wen on Tuesday. He will meet with Hu and attend a business summit on Wednesday.

Ahead of the trip, British officials announced a string of Sino-British deals.

The biggest of these was a 45-million-pound five-year agreement for British companies to export breeding pigs to China.

China sealed trade deals with France worth 20 billion dollars during a three-day state visit by Hu hosted by President Nicolas Sarkozy last week.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News