China’s official Xinhua news agency
has reported that the Beijing police have reported
that a company run by dissident artist Ai Weiwei—who was taken into custody without explanation in early April—”was found to have evaded ‘a huge amount’ of tax.”
The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd. was also found to have intentionally destroyed accounting documents, the police authorities told Xinhua, citing an initial investigation.
The police also described Ai’s detention as “residence surveillance”—though the artist is not under house arrest, but being held somewhere undisclosed. Ai’s wife, Lu Qing, was
him for the first time this past Sunday, at “a location she did not recognize,” but was not permitted to discuss the case with him. And despite today’s claims about tax evasion, formal charges against Ai have yet to announced; the
for detention without charges passed
.
