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Nicholas Kristof

“I think they don’t know how to handle someone like me”

After briefly lying low after his imprisonment, Ai has resumed his political pranks. Mocking the authorities for installing 15 cameras to monitor his movements, he broadcast a public “weiweicam” on the Internet with a feed from his bedroom so the government could keep an even closer eye on him.

“They almost begged me to turn it off,” he said with a grin.

At the end of a long conversation, I asked Ai if he had anything else to say.

“China still needs help from the U.S.,” he said. “To insist on certain values, that is the role of the U.S. That is the most important product of American culture. When Hillary Clinton talks about Internet freedom, I think that’s really beautiful.”

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No, weiwei!

Christien on December 30, 2012 at 6:25 PM

My schadenfreude at the bumbling failures of this Administration is outweighed by my sincere hope that the U.S. steps up to the role that this man and many like him see us as needing to play.

Having to hear about freedom from Hillary Clinton? How unfortunate his situation must be…

Atlas on December 30, 2012 at 6:27 PM

But…China’s government works.

Thomas Friedman told me so.

I think it’s disgraceful this malcontent should question them. He probably richly deserved the beatings he got.

Typhoon on December 30, 2012 at 6:38 PM

“China still needs help from the U.S.,” he said. “To insist on certain values, that is the role of the U.S. That is the most important product of American culture. When Hillary Clinton talks about Internet freedom, I think that’s really beautiful.”

There’s a message there for Americans. We have a powerful military, yes, but the “hard power” of missiles is often exceeded by our “soft power” of ideas. Speaking up for our values around the world invariably raises questions of hypocrisy and inconsistency, but it’s better to be an inconsistent advocate of democracy and human rights than to be a consistent advocate of nothing.

I hope the White House listens to how Ai responded when I asked if President Obama was doing enough to raise human rights concerns.

“I don’t know what they’re doing under the table,” Ai said. “But on the surface, they’re not doing enough.”

See Iran.

Obama and Hillary love tyrants. See Egypt and the entire Arab ‘Spring’.

I hope he mocks all of them into oblivion, the Chinese and the US ‘leaders’.

Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 6:39 PM

Watch out. Dark Current might swing by and tell you how wonderful China of today is.

He’s a propagandist for China, in some disguise.

Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 6:40 PM