Epic new documentary human flow, which is a sweeping look at the struggle of the more than 65 million refugees worldwide. Being a refugee is much more than a political status. It is the most pervasisive kindf that cacan be accessed againt the human being. You are forcibly, of all aspects that would make human life not just tolerable, but meaningful in many ways. Amy well also get a sneak preview of his new massive new art installation that spans across new york citys boroughs. It critiques the global rise of nationalism and the closure of borders. Its called good fences make good neighbors. The fence is to divide. It is about territory. About dividing to push the others away or to stop others from crossing. Rally, amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracyowow , democracacynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The powerful head of the Senate Foreign relations committee, Tennessee Republican bob corker, warned sunday that trump is treating the presidency like a reality show and setting the u. S. On the path to world war iii. Senator corker made the comments to the New York Times after trump spent much of the weekend threatening war with north korea and after trump attacked corker on twitter sunday morning, saying the senator didnt have the guts to run for reelection and claiming corker dropped out after begging unsuccessfully for trumps endorsement. That prompted corker to respond on twitter its a shame the white house has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning. The president s spat withh senator corker came as trump repeated threats of war against north korea throughout the weekend, tweeting president s and their administrations have been talking to north korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid hasnt worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, making fools of u. S. Negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work in brief comments to reporters saturday, trump was asked to clarify that remark, as well ass a cryptic comment he made last week during a meeting with top generals in which he warned about the calm before the storm. Can you clarify your comment . Preses. Trump nothing to clari. [indiscernible] well, you will figure that out pretty soon. Amy again, in that click, a reporter asked, what is the one thing that will work regarding north korea . Trump response, well, you will figure that out pretty soon. Trumps threats came as north Koreas Central News Agency accused the u. S. Central Intelligence Agency of plotting unsuccessfsfully to assassinate leader kim jongun last may. In i immigration news, President Trump said sunday he wont restore the daca program protecting hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation unless lawmakers agree to expand the wall on the u. S. Mexico border and move to keep out thousands of children fleeing Gang Violence in central america. The Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer called the proposal a nonstarter, tweeting nancy pelosi i told potus we were open to reasonable Border Security alongside dreamact his list goes so far beyond whats reasonable. In september, President Trump said the u. S. Would stop renewing applications for daca the deferred action for childhood arrivals program, which gives nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants permission to live and work in the United States. On the gulf coast, Hurricane Nate made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Southeastern Louisiana saturday night as a category 1 storm, making a second landfall biloxi,at night near mississippi. The storm brought Power Outages and flooding to preserve the region, but did not result in the sorts of damage seen by the far more powerful hururricanes harvey, irma, and maria. Canadas government has agreed to pay out 750 million Canadian Dollars to indigenenous pepeoplo were separated from their families as children and put up for adoption with nonnative families. The progogram, known as the sixties scoop, ran from thee 1960s into the 1980s and affected as many as 30,000 children. Among them was chief marcia brown martel, chief plaintiff in the lawsuit. I have great hope that because we have reached this plateau, that this will never, ever have been in canada again. Amy in spain, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in barcelona sunday in a massive unity rally opposing independence for the countrys catalonia region. Organizers said nearly one Million People attended the rally, while Catalan Police put the number at 350,000. In either case, the rally was larger than a mass proindependence mobilization last week. The rally came as catalan leaders claimed about 90 of those who voted in a banned referendum a week ago supported independence. Spains government called the independence drive unconstitutional and ordered a Police Crackdown on the vote , which left over r 900 people injured. Inin russia, Police Arrested moe than 260 people in citieies acrs the country sunday as protesters defied a ban on rallieses to cal rr an end to corruption and open elections president 65th birthday. S the rallieies came after a a cot sentntence oppositioioneader saying he is ineligible to run for the presidency during an election next year. This is a protester who joinedd the protest inin the eastetern. Underststand how impoportant it is s when those n power are replaced in an orderly way and how important it isis delivered out politicacal persecution. We think it is wrong a polititician is regularly jailed for several days are some Little Things which police, especially, search for. We came here to support him. I cannot say a support everything he does, but i think he is an alternanative for o our country. Amy in the occupied west bank, thousands of israeli and palestinian women marched to the shores of the jordan river on sunday, calling for an end to jewish only settlements and four negotiated peace agreement. This is an israeli citizen of the group women wage peace. Women fromrganizing all over the country, from every side of the political spectrum who are saying enough. Enough. We are no longer willing to do this. We must reach a political agreement. We must change the paradigm that we have been taught for seven decades now, where we have been told that only war will bring peace. We dont believe that anymore. It has been proven it is not true. Amy in mexico, the body of journalist Edgar Daniel Esqueda was found friday in the central mexican city of san luis potosi, riddled with Bullet Wounds and showing signs of torture. Esquedas death came after the 23yearold reporter repeatedly complained to a governmentrun Human Rights Group that state police had threatened him over his journalism. In one incident, Police Ordered him to delete xers from his camera after he photographed the aftermath of a police shootout. Esqueda is at least the 11th media worker killed in mexico this year, matchching last yeas rerecord death toll. In ghanas capital city of accra, at least seven people were killed and 132 others injured saturday when an explosion ripped through a stateowned liquefied natural gas station, sending a huge fireball into the night sky and setting off a secondary explosion at a nearby filling station. The blast was at least the eighth such explosions in ghana over the last four years. In 2015, similar blast in accra killed over 100 people. Back in the United States, in hollywood, the Weinstein Company fired cofounder Harvey Weinstein sunday, just four days after the New York Times reported the movie mogul was the subject of harassment and assault accusations for decades and that he paid off at least eight women who confronted him over the alleged humiliating and degrading harassment. Weinsteins firing came after three members of the companys board of directors resigned, along with two of weinsteins attorneys, following the report in the times. In washington, d. C. , a womens Advocacy Group set up a giant tv screen on the National Mall friday and looped a 2005 video showing donald trump boasting about sexually assaulting women. The 12hourlong protest was organizezed by thehe group ultraviolet on the 1yearanniverersary of the first relelease of the aaccess hollllywood videoeo in which tp boasts, when youre a star, they let you do it grab em by the pussy. This is ultravaviolet Campaign Director emma boorboor. We want to remind the American People who the president really is and who he said he was on that tape, a proud, so professed sexuall predator. This is a prime example of how when you elect a man who is very hostile toward women, that he is now in office actively pursuing an antiwomaman agenda. Amy y fridays s protest came n the same day that President Trump ended a federal requirement that employerbased Health Insurance cover the cost of womens birth control. In charlottesville, virginia, a few dozen White Nationalists carrying torches gathered near a statue of confederate general robert e. Lee saturday night, eight weeks after farright protesters at a a larger rally attacked antifascist protesters, injujuring dozens ad killing 32yearold heather heyer. Saturdays rally was the third in charlottesville organized by White Nationalist richard spencer. It came after city officials covered the statue of robert e. Lee in a black tarp last month in the wake of augusts violence and after President Trump p blad both sides for the attacks, claiming there were veryry fine people among farright protesters. An fbi counterterrorism unitt secretly identified socalled black identity extremists as a violent threat according to a leaked document obtained by Foreign Policy magazine. In the report dated august 2017, the fbis domestic terrorism Analysis Unit writes the fbi assesses it is very likely black identity extremist perceptions of Police Brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against Law Enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such violence. Civil liberties groups warn the black identity extremists designation threatens the rights of protesters with black lives matter and other groups and have compared it to the fbis Cointelpro Program of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, which targeted the civil rights movement. In utah, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Salt Lake City Police Headquarters sunday demanding murder charges be brought against a white Police Officer filmed shooting 50yearold African American Patrick Harmon as he ran from police. Salt lake countys s District Attorney hasas cleared officer clinton fox of any wrongdoing in the case, even though newly released Police Bodycam video clearly shows the officer shooting harmon three times in the back. A warning to viewers, this video is graphic. Put your hands behind your back for me. Shots fired. Start medical. Amy Patrick Harmon had been pulllled over by officers for nt having a light on his bicycle. After the shooting, the District Attorneys office claimed that harmon said, ill cut you and turned to threaten officers wiwh a knifife. The claim is directly contradicted by the bodycam video. And Vice President mike pence flew to indianapolis sunday where he staged a walkout of an nfl game betweenen the San Francisco 49ers and the Indianapolis Colts after players on both teams held a protest against Racial Injustice during the National Anthem. His decision to leave appeared preplanned after President Trump said he asked his Vice President to leave during any protest. More than 20 members of the San Francisco 49ers knelt during the anthem, while colts players stood with locked arms wearing shirts reading, we will stand for equality, justice, unity, respect, dialogue, opportunity. This is the San Francisco 49ers safety eric reid, who joined order back Colin Kaepernicks National Anthem protest last year, speaking on sunday. This is about systemimic oppression that has been rampant in this country for decades on top of decades. Andll continue to say encourage people to educate themselves of how we got to where we are today because it did not happen overnight. It is not going to happen overnight to fix these issues. It is disarming when everything you were raised on, everything i was raised on, was to be the best person i can be, to help people that need help, and the Vice President of the United States is trying to confuse the message that w ware tryingng to put out there. Amy Vice President pences brief visit to annapolis cost taxpayers an estimated 250,000 after he traveled from las vegas to indianapolis for the brief appearance at Lucas Oil Stadium before flying back to a fundraising event in california. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In a democracy now special, we spend the hour with worldrenowned chinese artist and activist ai weiwei. Artreview magazine has called him the most powerful artist in the world. Hes also been called the most dangerous man in china. Ai weiwei was born in 1957 in beijing. His mother was writer gao ying and his father was the revered poet ai qing. The year after ai weiwei was born, his father was named an enemy of the people. He and his family, including oneyearold ai weiwei, were sent to a hard labor camp in the gobi desert in remote northwest china. Ai weiwei spent the next 16 years of his life growing up in hard labor camps, with harsh Living Conditions and little formal education. The family had only one book a large french encyclopedia. At 19, ai weiwei and his family returned to beijing and he enrolled in beijing film academy to study animation. There, he became part of a group of avantgarde artists organizing against governmentcontrol of the arts. Their slogan we demand political democracy and artistic freedom. He was also part of a small Political Movement of students who produced posters calling for reforms and pasted them on them on a brick wall that came to be known as the democracy wall. When the leader of that movement was sentenced to 15 years of prison, ai weiwei decided to move to new york city. It was 1981 and ai weiwei spoke no english and had 30 in his pocket. He settled in the Lower East Side and befriended Allen Ginsberg and other influential artists. He briefly studied at Parsons School of design, but dropped out after his professor told him his drawings had no heart. Instead, he held a string of odd jobs, working in construction, cutting grass, cleaning houses, babysitting, even winning money in Atlantic City as a blackjack guru. In 1993, ai weiwei returned to china because his father was ill. He founded a highly influential architecture firm, named fake design, and dedicated himself to art and writing. In 2008 after a massive earthquake in sichuan, china, ai weiwei launched a citizen investigation to collect the names of the more than 5000 schoolchildren who died, partially as a result of the highly shoddy government construction of the schools. Ai weiwei was highly critical of the governments response to the earthquake, saying they intimidate, they jail, they persecute parents who demand the truth, and they brazenly stomp on the constitution and the basic rights of man. While his citizen investigation catapulted him to international fame, it also enraged Chinese Government officials. In 2009, his popular blog was shut down. A few months later, police broke into his hotel room and attacked him, punching him in the face and causing cerebral hemorrhaging. He had to have emergency brain surgery, which he documented in his film so sorry. Then he launched his most famous installation to date a massive mosaic of 9000 childrens backpacks mounted on the exterior wall of the german art Museum Munich haus der kunst. The backpacks spelled out in chinese characters the words of one mother whose child was killed in the earthquake she lived happily on this earth for seven years. In 2010, ai weiwei was placed under house arrest after the Chinese Government demolished his studio. Then in 2011, he was arrested at the beijing airport and held for 81 days without any charges. Chinese authorities seized his passport and refused to return it until 2015. Once the passport was returned, he moved to berlin, germany. Hes also faced constant surveillance a topicic whiche exploreded earlier t thiyear in his exhihibition hansel gretel, set in new yorks park avenueue armory in which visitos are relentlessly tracked by cameras. Among his other famous installations was his 2010 show Sunflower Seeds at the tate museum in london, in which ai weiwei f filled a hall of the museum wiith more than 1 100 million hahandpnteded porcelain sunfnflower seeds. S. He currently has a solo exhibition at the Hirschhorn Museum in washington, d. C. Called trace. The exhibit features 176 portraits of activists and free speech advocates made of lego bricks. He also has a major new exhibition opening next week in new york city, in which hes erecting security fences across the boroughs, including under Washington Square arch, to explore the rise of nationalism and the closure of borders worldwide. Its called good fences make good neighbors. Too divide, to set up some kind of border. It is abouout territory. About dividing to push the others away or to stop others from crossing. Generally, amy ai weiwei is also the director of a major new documentary on the struruggle of refugees worldwide called human flow. For the documentary, he traveled to 23 countries, visiting dozens of refugee camps. This is the trailer, which takes us to iraq, jordan, gaza, northern greece, and kenya. Being a refugee is much more than a political status will step it is the most northern greece, andnd kenya. Pe kind of f cruelty ththat can bee exercisesed against a human bei. You are forcibly robbing the human being of all aspects that would make human life not just tolerable, but meaningful in many ways. The more immune you are to people suffering, that is very, very danangerous. It is crititical for us toto maintain t the humidity. Over 65 Million People inin e worlrld have beeeen forciblyly displaceced from theheir homome. Ive beenn roaming endlessly with my son for 60 days now. Nobody has shown as the way. Where am i supposed d to start y new life . If chihildren grow u up wit any hope, without any prospects for the future, without any sense of them being able to make something out of their lives, then they will become very vulnerable. E. We went f for a stroll for fund. It is the only place to escape in the prison of gaza. The officials came here. Going tono way youre get papers to continue. Either you go voluntarily, or we will arrest you. Witness t the global journey y of the people over 233 countries. It is going to be a big challenge to recognize the world is s shrinking a and people from difffferent religigions, difffft cucultures are goioing to have o leararn to live with each other. And mcgough is the trailer for the new documentary human flow. It is directed by ai weiwei, the internationally renowned chinese artist. He will be back with us live after the break. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The United Nations says there are now more refugees worldwide than any time since world war ii. The journey a struggle at the 65 million refugees is the subject of chinese artist and dissident ai weiweis epic new documentary called human flow. 23veled to 33 countries, dozens of refugee camps. He joins us now in our new york studio. Yes, the worldrenowned chinese artist, dissident, activist ai weiwei. He has received so many awards, including the 2015 ambassador of conscience award from amnesty international, the 2012 prize for creative dissent from the human rights foundation. He is now the einstein visiting professor at the Berlin University of the arts can also director and producer of this new documentary that is opening around the country human flow. Ai weiwei, it is an honor to have you here. Thank you. Amy talk about why he decided to make this epic film that took you across the world. You come a man, you yourself have been internally displaced in china, had to leave china. Talk about your life and how it intertwines with this story in the film. I had got my passport back so i can start to travel. I went to germany. In germany, you face the reality of refugees that come to the land. It makes me wonder, who are they . I decided to go to greece. The last one was to look at those people and how they get on the land. To lesbos . Nt yes, in greece. I see those people. People. Hildren, old some are crying. Ust an unthinkable situation come down in this little boat. Then another boat. Another boat. Sometimes you have 30, 40 both a a day. Bosts , havees me really wonder a curiosity about what is really going on in the world today. So i decided to move my studio to lesbos. 20, 30 people there. Start filming. Then eventually, we havave to go to the o other side, tutuey, and the e middle east. And ththen go to asia and africa to makake this f fm. Year to us about one finish. We visited about 23 nations, 40 camps, and interviewed about 600 people. And it has 900 hours of footage. Amy so you would to the middle east as well. Where did you go . We went first to jordan, then oursrael, gaza iraq,lso go to afghanistan, pakistan. Ll those places amy what did you find in gaza . Situation not people being pushed away from home, but being put in like a big jail. Stay theyeople cannot leave. The situation is extremely difficult. The only have very little resource and many people survive from the help from the United Nations. Polluted. Electricity, only a few hours a day. Extremely difficult situation. Amy were did you go in israel . To jerusalem,went tel aviv, and the west bank, palestine area. Amy i want to turn to a clip from human flow, your new documentary. This ispalestine dr. Cem terzi E Association of bridging peoplel. He works with Syrian Refugees in turkey. There is nothing in this agreement in favor of refugees. Turkish law system only allows them under the temporary protection. Rightss theyey have no here. ,ne day the government decides i will send them back. The government can do this because theyre not defined as a refugee. No rights for them. They need job permits. They need jobs. Income to buy food or to pay their rent. Amy that is dr. Cem terzi. Tell us more about him and what you found. They have been a major force to helping the refugees in turkey. And recently, he has been fired with other professors. A year ago, they signed a peace treaty. Many many his own life has been threatened in turkey. The team really did a lot of work for helping refugees, to take medical care for them. And ago i want to go bacack to your own story, especially for young people who are tuning in around the world right now. Talk about your parents. Talk about what happened to you in china. I was born in 1957, the year my father was purged amy he had been a friend the same generation, a little younger. They all spend time for the new nation was established. So he belongs to this really revolutionary group. E studied in paris after he came back to china, he was being put in jail for six years. Hen later, join the revolution he was criticized. It was about half billion of the intellectuals in china all being , forn the labor camps reeducation. So i grew up in these camps ,uring the counterrevolution have to do hard labor. Amy this was in the gobi desert . Yes, in the northwest. Amy what was your understanding of what happened . As a child . You think, yet no way it is like you see misery everywhere. There is no exception. Years. T about 20 could not write words. Beaten. Ing sometimes he comes home with all poured on his head. Bebeing totally black. Amy they poured ink over his head . Yes. A lot of meetings. They would say all kinds of bad words about him. And yes to confess his crime, which he never committed any crime. Amy what about your mother . She also was she also had to struggle. She has to try to find something to feed the children. Living underground. It is like a whole youre youre digging. The whole Family Living in the ground. Amy you help your father or your whole library, except for this one french encyclopedia . Yes. One day my father had brought a huge collection of books, art books about impressionist, renaissance. The guard always come to our home and have to check on the books. Page by page. If there is any nudity or abstract art, they would start to really question my father. Day my father said, we have to burn all of those books because they attract so many people to come to our home. So i helped him to burn those books page by page because there were a lot of poetry books. A literary man. Has a huge collection of books. O we burned it amy and the next day you were sent off to the labor camp . Yes. Soon after, sent to the labor camp. Amy so you lived in this remote area of china for how long . I stayed until i was 18 or 19. Death,chems rivulet sizeded rehabilitated come and we went to beijing. Amy then you went to school . The universities started to open again after tenure shut down. I went to beijing film institute. Amy and you immediately got involved with politics and freedom of expression movement. Yes, the first time trying to war called the democracy war. We put our art works or writings, our poetry on the wall. After the wall being torn down and people got involved, some of them being put in jail. That is the reason i decided to leave china. Amy you new rightofway, you had just come out of exile, you knew what you faced doing what you did. Yes. It is unbelievable. After the revolution, everybody has to think about the lessons they paid for this kind of harsh political moment. Then some young people started protect it from this political event. Crashed. Gs the students. You know, the people who are trying to make china a more progressive. Amy so you left and you came here to the United States. Yeah. I had a chance, so i left and i come to the United States. I stayed in new york about 10 years post of amy the Lower East Side . Yes. In brooklyn. Most time, the Lower East Side, 3rd street. Amy you befriended Allen Ginsberg . Yes. Use in the neighborhood. He went to china at the time. And after he comes back, the forgery reading in Saint Marks Church the Poetry Reading and Saint Marks Church. I listen to his reading any talk a lot about china. I figured out it was my father because of the story he was telling. So when he comes down, i said, you just met my father. He was very surprised. Then we become friends. Amy so you ended up returning to china, despite all you adventure, because your dad was ill in 1993. At the time, i was telling my mom i will never go back. I told her my mom was very worried when she sent me to the airport because this child has no english. I told her, dont worry. Im going home. So she is kind of sad. She knows i will never come back to china. But after 12 years, i decided to go back because my father was ill. Amy and how did you operate . What kind of space did you have their then . Talk about your art and ultimately what you did with the Sichuan Earthquake, which was about 10 years later. By 1993, i went back. China had sosome change in the people become better off. And some Tall Buildings in the city. The basically, it never changed the political structure. So there is still freedom of speech. It isno independent. Till very harsh any kind of ideas or discussion. Come up with an idea to publish some underground books, to document chinese art moment. So every year, we made a book. The book has no title, just like cover, great cover, or white censorshipesting the. And those books document the underground movement of art at the time. No newspapers or magazines will talk about contemporary art. Then i opened the first arctic our a in china. Art gallery in china to show about chinese art. Made art2000, i show. Contemporaryout Young Artists work. Was involvedime, i in architecture. I did a lot of architecture projects about 60 projects until i got involved with National Stadium for the olympics called the bird nest. After that, i created quit the architecture. By 2005, at a chance to learn andto use the internet started typing and writing articles. Suddenly, i become very popular on the internet because i would write three or four articles a day. The next day i was he if you ied thousand articles, would see a few hundred thousand articles, reposts. The chinese nation has donation no freedom of speech. People are scared about their writing, but i openly discussed politics with my own independent view or opinion. Know, foropular, you a very short time. I got involved with and for the Sichuan Earthquake 2008. Trying to find these 5000 students who vanished during this earthquake. And of course, that is relate to government corruption. Effort and argument cases because that is a big problem in china. I would say that dislike me. Of you showed the images the children. I wanted to show images from the installation you made called so sorry, from 2009, creating this installation called remembering on the facade of the munich museum. Can you talk about this in germany . That would then travel the world . I saw it at the brooklyn museum. Involved got totally a languaged of life, to express it in art context. Showst time i do have our art shows. Work relating to my research or my findings. In munich, not in brooklyn, you can see some works are really relating amy you took the childrens backpacks. Redesigned the backpacks. 9000 backpacks. Amy and you wrote out the words of the mother . Yes. The girl who got killed, her mom very touched. Another person arguing the rights of those students. Silent. Y, china is i made quite a dramatic arguing about60 articles irate the Sichuan Earthquake. Amy and the poor architecture and the poor buildings. Meant a lot of materials on the side with it. So have concrete proof, evidence the buildings have been collapsed. Amy you wrote out the words with a backpack, what the mother said, she looked happily for seven years in this world. She lived happily for seven years and this world. Gethe said, i dont want to pension. I just want people to remember my dauaughter r has been living happily for seven years. Amy were going to get a break. When we come back, what happened to you next, what launched you back into the world outside of china after you were arrested and beaten. Ai weiwei is our guest, the worldrenowned chinese dissident, artist, activist. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Our guest for the hour is ai weiwei. Spinning the hour with worldrenowned chinese artist, dissident, activist. In 2008 after the massive Sichuan Earthquake in china, ai weiwei launched its citizen to collect more than 5000 School Children center dot partially as a result of the highly shoddy government construction of t the schools while citizen investigation catapulted him to the internationally fame, it also enraged at his government officials. In 2009,s popular blog was shut down just of a few months later, police broke into his hotel room , attacked them, for to him in the face, causing cerebral imaging. He had emergency brain surgery, which he later documented in his film so sorry. Placed underg was house arrest after the Chinese Government demolishes studio. Tenant 2011, arrested the beijing airport, held for 81 days without any charge, chinese authorities seized his passport, refused to turn it until 2015. Return it until 2015 after this exhibition, what did happen to you in 2009 . Test as trying to do a a witness for a fellow investigators who is going to be sentenced. To the hotel. The next day, the court will open. At midnight, a few dozen police just rushing. I think about 3 00 in the morning. They broke the door in the dark. Had some argument. I feel this puncture on my face. , we could not appear in court until the court finished. I had to travel to munich. In munich, i went to the hospital. They found out i have a hemorrhage, bleeding in my brain. Admitted and had an operation. If i dont have this operation, they said i will be finished. That come the situation getting even worse. Police follow me all the time. Of course, they try to intimidate me. Kidnapped ini was the airport and put a black hood over my face and taken to a secret location. Was kind oftion, i jailed, but it is like a military base, for 81 days. Now nobody knows where this location is. Two soldiers were standing in front of me. Kind of military soldiers. 80 centimeters away him a they would look at me like this and stand still. Oesnt make any kind of move day and night, 24 hours a day. Even when i sleep or take a shower or go to the toilet, they also have to stand right in front of me. Then after going through about 50 interrogations, the crime subversive me of is state power. It is the biggest crime you can commit in china. That is what happened. Amy but they gave you your passport back in 2015. First, they told me i would be sentenced over 10 years because of my crime. I could believe them because compared to other people, many people have been put in jail, also sentenced, i would be much more extreme than them. Suddenly, they, said get out. You u can leave. Amy what t difference did International Solidarity make for you . That moment, i dont know any kind of support because it is totally sealed. You cannot get a lawyer. Your family doesnt know where you are. You cannot let any information out. It is not possible. So i dont know thehe Strong International outcry. Amy both of your lawyers are currently in jail. They are still serving time in jail. Five years and 11 years. Both of them. Amy even your imprisonment, your beating, you turn into an art installation. After i come out, many people likeioned me on what it is being in those conditions. I find out ring which is great difficult to describe it, so i made an exact same s situation n aa sculpture, installation. Every detail fits exactly like the reality. Amy did you photograph the Police Taking you . No, nobody can photograph it. My phone was taken away. Even police think i have some photos of the location because they couldnt believe i can make the situation so real. I told them, you know, youre dealing with an artist. So i memorized all of the details in the room. Amy the iphone ththat you used that you started human flow with, i mean, youre holding it right now in your hand, taking pictures and studios, you take selfies with people on their phones so they can have it. What has that phone meant to you you . Me to getfor firsthand information about what is going on in the world. And second, to reflect my expressions to the world. So it is like a mirror, but it works both ways. Amy but you also are the main theme of your work is surveillance, like the handling gretel at the armory, drone surveillance. These phones are the ultimate device for surveillance. Its true. It can examine the world, but also it has it also examines my life. , talk aboutny works surveillance. In my house, there are about 25 cameras set up by police. Also inside my room, i later found a box in electricity where it is everywhere. A verythink of me as dangerous person. Amy before we end of the show, youre back in the United States right now. Though youre not living here. Your film is opening across the United States. I do have to ask about President Trump and his elation ship with your country, with china his relationship with your country, with china, and your concerns about him now . Have a very active president. Each day it brings surprise to the media and to people. True relationship with china, it is very hard to say. He is going to visit china very soon. Things politics, so many are hidden. You never know what is on his mind. And also start to doubt really what the United States policy or principle is. Amy look at north korea. Ordealing with north korea even just dealing with mexico. The neighbor. The beautiful neighbor, called in criminals or rapists. Amy you went to the border wall. But it is very hard to take this kind of response, to see if that is a true thinking of this man or does he really have right judgment . It is very difficult to really make any kind of analyzing about him. Amy
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