We think China Really Sucks, of course - that’s the very premise of this site. But here’s a guy who has been bearing the brunt of China’s sucking for generations.

  The son of a poet who was exiled and tortured, Ai Wei Wei is not only China’s most famous artist, he’s the country’s most outspoken. But unlike most artists who like to be feted at cocktail parties and on the celebrity circuit, he has used his fame to focus on the problems of the country – its environmental degradation, lack of human rights and, especially, despite its pretense of being a People’s Republic, its failure to deliver much equality and fairness to the common citizen.

  His courage is unquestioned. He’s been beaten by police for working to uncover the shoddy construction that contributed to the deaths of thousands of school children in the Sichuan earthquake, and the official cover-up of the corruption there. His films and art installations have often focused on injustice in China, and confounded the authorities, who have been unable to silence him.

  On Sunday, April 3, he was arrested as he tried to board a flight for Hong Kong. Nothing has been heard from him since.

  In one of the last interviews before his arrest, Wei Wei told China Really Sucks that he expected to be arrested at some time, yet defiantly refused to choose the path of exiled critic. Instead, he vowed that the actions of “a million people just like me” and the expansion of the internet would bring about a revolution in China, and that the present days of the Communist Party are numbered.

  Here are some excerpts from that interview. China Really Sucks will continue to print more from Ai Wei Wei until China releases him:

  “China is like an old family. And they say that suffering is just the way things are. But this is the old system. It makes no sense.

  “The real crime in China is how the Communist Party cheated us out of education, and information. The worst crime is not the pollution, or the stealing of land, but how they robbed us of education.

  “The old times are built on an illusion. The old structure in China is based on an illusion. The illusion is that money and power are everything. But the internet changes everything. The internet is about the individual, and it doesn’t matter who you are, or your background.

  “This is totally new, a revolution. You see it in Facebook, and other such things on the internet. Individuals now have this free way forward. If you want to communicate, the technology is totally liberating. And it will change China, of that I have no doubt.

  “The internet is already a miracle in China, how it allows people to speak, and connect without interference from the system. It is the only force to organize people, and to exercise the mind. China is like this Iron Curtain. It exerts its biggest force to block people from communication – the Great Firewall.

  “This is the only tool for staying in power. If they don’t do this, the Party will be out of power in a month. If they don’t have this control, they will be gone, within a month. No question. The internet will bring a revolution in China. Of that, I have no doubt.

  “China can try, but they cannot shut me up. Ten years ago it would have been easier, but times have changed. Now, there are a million people like me in China. I don’t think they can stop us all.”