Ai Weiwei in an opaque system

"Dissident artist Ai Weiwei's latest provocative piece was handed to him by the Chinese government: a $2.4 million tax bill that he says is a trumped-up effort to silence him.


Though jarred after spending nearly three months in police detention this year, he turned the demand into performance art — posting official documents online, tallying loans from supporters and making a video of himself singing an anti-censorship song.


It opened a window on an opaque system, and showed that many in China share his desire for government accountability. 


Supporters donated more than $1.3 million (8.5 million yuan) to Ai's in just two weeks, some of it folded into paper airplanes or wrapped around fruit and thrown over his gate."


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The Associated Press: Ai Weiwei makes tax battle a 'social performance':