Chinese officials are escalating their campaign to silence a world-famous artist with a reputation for speaking his mind.

CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton reports that although Ai Weiwei is China's most famous artist, even helping design the country's Olympic Stadium, the government yesterday tried again to pin new charges on him. But these days, he's better known as the Chinese government's most outspoken opponent.

After 2008's Sichuan earthquake, he headed his own investigation asking why schools collapsed while government buildings stayed intact. Since then, he's railed against injustice, pointing out the unfair advantages of China's elite.
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As anger over the government's harassment of Ai Weiwei spread over the Chinese internet, the artist's office was inundated with 30,000 online donations totaling $1.5 million. Others came in person from across China to Weiwei's suburban Beijing workspace, literally throwing money over the wall into his studio.
Ai said police had previously questioned him about the images, but he doubted they understood art. "If they see nudity as pornography, then China is still in the Qing dynasty," he told Associated Press.
http://m.cbsnews.com/fullstory.rbml?catid=57328233&feed_id=0&videofeed=36
Ai Weiwei is under investigation for spreading pornography, the Chinese artist has said, as the authorities turned their attention from political subversion and tax evasion to online images of nudity.
He said police had questioned his cameraman Zhao Zhao on Thursday over pictures Zhao had taken of the artist."They clearly told him this is an investigation, now, they are doing on me, on pornography,"Ai told the AFP news agency.
One of the pictures, One Tiger Eight Breasts, shows Ai posing nude on a wooden chair flanked by four naked women who are giggling and smiling.
"Netizens came to take photos with me, so we said why don't we take nudity photos, then everybody agreed so we did it and they were put on the internet, and that's it, we forget about it,"Ai said.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/nov/18/ai-weiwei-investigation-nude-art?cat=artanddesign&type=article
The artist Ai Weiwei can'tseem to catch a break with the Chinese government. His open dissension, of course, doesn't help, but the government has kept coming after him time and time again.
First jailing him for nearly three months, then sending him a $2.4 million tax bill. The latest wrinkle in the struggle between Ai and the Chinese government is that they are investigating one of his assistants for spreading pornography online. The photo in question, titled"One Tiger, Eight Breasts," features Ai and four women naked.
The Guardian reports:
"He said police had questioned his cameraman Zhao Zhao on Thursday over pictures Zhao had taken of the artist. 'They clearly told him this is an investigation, now, they are doing on me, on pornography,' Ai told the AFP news agency. ...
File: Naked ai weiwei .jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naked_ai_weiwei.jpg

Despots never like when you ridicule them!