Youre witnessing the moment when the people in this room realize they can see, for the first time in years. Can you see my fingers . Their eyes and their faces begin to light up with a quiet sort of joy and wonder at the gift of sight. Doctors geoff tabin and sanduk ruit are eye surgeons, and now, they are life savers. Ai weiwei is chinas most famous political dissident. Hes also one of the most successful contemporary artists in the world a designer, sculptor, photographer and blogger whos earned legions of followers by using his art as a weapon to ridicule the authorities. Are you an artist, or are you an activist . I think, artist and activist is the same thing. Im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im bill whitaker. Im anderson cooper. Im holly williams. Im scott pelley. Those stories, tonight on 60 minutes. hard exhalation honey . Can we do this tomorrow . grunts of effort can we do this tomorrow . If you have Heart Failure symptoms, your risk of hospitalization could increase, making tomorrow uncertain. But entresto is a medicine that was proven, in the largest Heart Failure study ever, to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading Heart Failure medicine. Women who are pregnant must not take entresto. It can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. If youve had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, dont take entresto. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. Tomorrow, tomorrow. When can we do this again, grandpa . Well, how about tomorrow . Ask your doctor about entresto and help make tomorrow possible. Ask your doctor about entresto the lincoln summer invitation is on. Its time for a getaway. Now get our best offers of the season. On the agile mkc. On the versatile midsize lincoln mkx. Or go where summer takes you in the exhilarating mkz. The lincoln summer invitation sales event. Ask about complimentary pick up delivery servicing. Right now get zero percent apr plus 1,000 dollars Summer Savings on the lincoln mkx, mkc and mkz thank you for barging in like that. Yes and if you need anything ever, work it out yourself. Wouldnt it be great if everyone said what they meant . The citi® double cash card does. Earn 1 cash back when you buy and 1 as you pay. Double means double. Stahl in the long, bloody history of terrorism, few acts of violence have been more savage or shocking than those carried out by isis, including the beheadings of Young American hostages in 2014. The videos went viral and catapulted isis onto the world stage. For the parents of one of those americans, art and shirley sotloff, the murder of their 31 yearold son steven was shattering because of the brutality of his execution, and because they think he couldve been saved if not for what even the Obama Administration admitted was its own ineffectiveness in dealing with the crisis. But, as we reported in january, what really sealed their sons fate, the sotloffs believe, was the governments policy against paying ransom. Steven sotloff i am Steven Joel Sotloff. Im sure you know exactly who i am by now and why i am appearing before you. Stahl Steven Joel Sotloff was beheaded by isis. His execution, on september 2, 2014, was seen around the world on a video. Did you ever watch it . Art sotloff i have viewed stevens body with his head on his chest. Shirley sotloff i had to see that because i needed to be sure that that was him. Stahl steven was born and raised in miami, attended college in israel and became a freelance journalist, reporting from war zones where information was scarce, like yemen, benghazi, libya and syria, where he went in the summer of 2013. Just before he crossed into aleppo, he called his dad. Art sotloff he contacted me and told me not to worry and. But, if i dont hear from him within four days, that i should get in touch with one of his colleagues. Stahl ooh, thats ominous. He didnt hear from his son, not just for four days; it was four excruciating months. Th, finallym letter with demands for the government to free all the muslims in u. S. Custody, or. Shirley sotloff then, there is a last option 100 Million Euros will secure stevens release. Stahl which is Something Like 137. Art sotloff 137 million. Stahl what was your reaction . Shirley sotloff the reaction was, how the hell are we going to get this money together . Stahl they thought the u. S. Government would help them, but they were bewildered and then infuriated when they say they met a stone wall the u. S. Policy forbidding the paying of ransom. Lisa monaco its some of the hardest work that ive done. Stahl lisa monaco was assistant to president obama for counterterrorism. She oversaw the hostage crisis. Monaco these are horrible choices. On the one hand, if you dont pay a ransom, you are putting an innocent life at risk. On the other hand, if you do, youre fueling the very activity thats put them at risk in the first place. Stahl did you feel ever that the policy might be wrong . Monaco the policy, thats been a decadesold policy of not paying ransom. I think is the right policy. Stahl so, you didnt question that. Monaco we didnt. We believed that that was important to maintain. Stahl but with the exception of the u. K. , most European Countries do pay ransom without publicly admitting it. Steven was held with 22 other hostages, including the three americans james foley, peter kassig and Kayla Mueller who were all killed. Once the european governments paid ransom, isis released their citizens, one of whom smuggled out this letter from steven. Art sotloff he was speaking how he cant stand seeing all the captives leave from all different countries. How could the United States just stand by and not do anything . Stahl as the european hostages came out and spoke of mock executions and waterboardings, the sotloffs decided they would try to raise at least some of the money themselves. But then, they and the other u. S. Families attended a meeting in washington with officials on the National Security council. Art sotloff all of us were saying, well, why cant we try to save our kids . And they said, because its against the law. We do not negotiate with terrorists. Stahl did they say you would be prosecuted . Art sotloff they said, you could be prosecuted, and also your donors could be prosecuted. Stahl so, if i gave you money, i could be prosecuted . Shirley sotloff yes. Art sotloff correct. Stahl did anybody say, are you kidding me . Art sotloff yes, they did. Yes, they did. Stahl so, it was a little bit contentious. Art sotloff oh, yeah. We kind of verbally fought back. Stahl they were threatened that they could be prosecuted. Is that true . Monaco so, whats true is that some families felt threatened, and that was unacceptable. And that should never have happened. Stahl are you suggesting they may not have been threatened . Monaco no. What im suggesting is, i wasnt present when any threats were made. But what matters, lesley, is that these families felt that way as they were going through the most horrific time they will ever encounter. Stahl but was that the policy . Was that true . Could they have actually been prosecuted . Could someone who contributed to pay ransom also be prosecuted . Monaco so, whats true is that the Justice Department has never prosecuted a family, or friends of a family that has paid a ransom. Stahl but was it the policy . Monaco well, whats. The. The policy is, the United States government will not pay ransoms or make concessions to terrorist hostage takers. Stahl that policy is based in part on a presumption that paying ransom invites more hostagetaking, but that is refuted by a new study that examined the case of every known western hostage taken since 9 11. It was coauthored by peter bergen, a counterterrorism expert, for the nonpartisan new america foundation. Peter bergen they dont know necessarily youre american when they take you. Its sort of a target of opportunity. So, some countries are known to pay ransom the french, the germans, the spanish. Stahl even though they dont admit it. Bergen they dont admit it, but they do. Their citizens have much Better Outcomes than americans. Americans are huge outliers here. Youre twice as likely to have a negative outcome compared to every other western hostage. Stahl you say negative outcome, you mean murdered. Bergen murdered, die in captivity or just remain in captivity. Stahl 14 of the european hostages held with steven made it home. Those from countries that dont pay ransom didnt; four americans and two brits died. I keep playing in my own head this horrible situation where the american hostages watched the other ones be set free, and i wonder if it wouldnt have been better if. If our government did what the european governments did, which was pay ransom but then deny it, in order to save their citizens. Why couldnt we have done that . Monaco wed still be fueling their terror activity. Whether its hostagetaking or whether its terrorist plots, to kill americans here in the homeland or elsewhere, is not activity that the United States government should be in the business of funding. Stahl what do you say to critics of the policy of not paying ransom . That the beheadings of the americans ended up having more value to isis than any money would have been. Thats really what put them on the international map. These beheading videos were a gold mine for isis. Do you. Do you see it that way . Monaco i dont, and i think its giving brutal, murderous thugs too much credit. Stahl what about the argument that if you pay ransom, youre just encouraging them to kidnap more . Also, that the money is going to go toward terrorism . And so, whats the comeback to that . Its a hard thing. Art sotloff going back to what president obama said to us in person, that he would do anything in his power to save his children if he was in the same situation. And i say that he should put himself in the same situation. And i think that the government has a responsibility to protect its citizens in whatever way that they can. Stahl what do you say when you hear people argue that steven knew he was putting his life at risk by going into syria at that point and, you know, kind of, the burdens on him. Art sotloff steven was driven by truth, that he had to report the truth. He saw that there wasnt information coming out of these areas, and thats really what drove him. Stahl in the summer of 2014, nearly a year after steven was abducted, president obama ordered a military operation to rescue the hostages. Monaco this involved a number of. A large number of military Service Members and special operators, who. Stahl putting their lives on the line. Monaco putting their lives on the line, going into the heart of isil territory in syria. And as we were monitoring the operation, word came back, some very devastating words its a dry hole, which meant that they werent there. Jihadi john this is james wright foley. Stahl about seven weeks later, james foley became the first of three american hostages beheaded. Steven appears at the end of the video. Jihadi john the life of this american citizen, obama, depends on your next decision. Stahl the sotloffs then received an audio message that sounds like steven was forced to record, designed to pressure the u. S. Government. It was given them by the f. B. I. Art sotloff this is always tough for me because its actually his voice, and it just makes me feel like hes still in the room with us. Steven sotloff to mom, i do not have much time and will probably not get this opportunity again, so i would like to get straight to the point. My life depends on obamas next decision. Mom, please dont let obama kill me. Mom, you can still save my life, just like the families of my previous cellmates whom im sure youve met. Fight for me, i love you. Shirley sotloff powerful. Art sotloff i got to blow my nose. Im sorry. If i could excuse myself . Stahl its okay. Its. Its cruel. Shirley sotloff very. I dont know what they wanted us to do. Stahl and always saying mom like that. Shirley sotloff mom. Stahl mom, mom. Shirley sotloff yeah. Stahl they learned of stevens death a few days after that. Art sotloff and hes in a much better place. Shirley sotloff we know hes in a better place. Art sotloff and, you know, he isnt suffering anymore. Stahl a couple of months later, they met with president obama. Art sotloff i asked the president , i said, how did you feel when my son was being held up by his neck and they were saying that this message is for you, president obama; stevens life depends on your next decision . How do you feel about that . And he looked down, and he really couldnt answer the question. I guess its a question that shocked him because, it shocked me that i even asked him that. Stahl how do you feel now about what happened . Maybe your role with the families whose kids were beheaded. Monaco i feel like, in many respects, we did not do right by these families, that we failed them. Stahl you feel you. You failed the families . Monaco we have americans who were brutally killed. Stahl after the beheadings, she put together a task force to review how the government handles hostagetaking, that included a meeting with the families. Monaco it was a lot of raw emotion and a lot of frustration and grief. Stahl anger at you . Monaco anger at us, anger at the loss of their loved ones, anger at the government. Stahl one of the task forces conclusions was that the various Government Agencies working on hostages were not coordinating with each other, which led to the creation of this new unit. Have we seen any claims of responsibility . Not yet. Stahl led by the f. B. I. , it brings together all the key agencies that work on hostages including the c. I. A. , defense and state departments in one place to work side by side, 24 7. They share intelligence and keep the families informed. Any results . No, sir. Not yet. Stahl however, the noransom policy was not changed; it wasnt even reviewed, though the Justice Department, in this public document, all but promised not to prosecute a family or their friends who do pay ransom to terrorists. Is it a good policy now . Are you happy with the way it has turned out . Art sotloff its a better policy than what it was. I mean, now it gives at least people the opportunity to try to save their Family Members. Stahl uhhuh. Art sotloff but i think its far from really solving the problem, because there is still money that has to be raised and paid, and the average family just cant do that. Stahl and you think our government should. Art sotloff absolutely. Shirley sotloff its a human life. How do you let an american go like that, just let them be killed and murdered . Every human is valuable. Everybody has a family, and they want them to come home. Stahl the sotloffs have started a foundation in stevens memory called two lives that among other things funds Safety Training for freelance journalists traveling to war zones. On the political front, with dozens of Americans Still being held hostage, President Trump has maintained the u. S. Policy of not paying ransom. I needed something more to help control my type 2 diabetes. My a1c wasnt were it needed to be. So i liked when my doctor told me that i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating whats within me with onceweekly trulicity. Trulicity is not insulin. It helps activate my body to do what its suppose to do, release its own insulin. I take it once a week, and it works 24 7. It comes in an easytouse pen and i may even lose a little weight. 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Our story is about two doctors who decided to do something about it. And incredibly, to date, they have restored sight to more than 150,000 people. Doctors they have trained have restored sight to four million more. As we first told you in april, their partnership seems improbable. One is a hardcharging, ivy league, american adrenaline junkie; the other, a serene buddhist surgeon from the remote mountains of nepal. We joined them on one of their most Challenging Missions in the isolated country of burma. Their goal to lead burma out of darkness one patient at a time. One by one, the patches are peeled away and the world comes back into focus. Youre witnessing the moment when the people in this room realize they can see, for the first time in years. Can you see my fingers . Their eyes and their faces begin to light up with a quiet sort of joy and wonder at the gift of sight. As they look around, they see who changed their world, with an operation the day before that took just minutes. Doctors geoff tabin and sanduk ruit are eye surgeons, and now, they are life savers. To hear doctors ruit and tabin speak, they are the beneficiaries. Whats it like when that bandage is taken off and that person sees for the first time, sees you . Dr. Sanduk ruit i may have seen it thousands of times, but every time, theres a new tickle there, and i feel like my batterys been recharged. Dr. Geoff tabin i still get such a thrill when people dont expect or realize theyre going to have their sight restored. And then a transformation when they see, and the sort of moment of hesitation, what are they seeing, and then the smile. Whitaker u myint oo hadnt seen for two years, until this moment. Others here had been blind for decades. They all had cataracts, a milky white build up of protein that clouds the lens of the eye. In the u. S. , they mainly afflict the elderly; removing them, a routine operation. But here in burma, also known as myanmar, cataracts go untreated and blindness is a way of life. Dr. Tabin its a buddhist population. Theyre very fatalistic. Theyre very accepting, and theres almost an acceptance that you get old, your hair turns white, your eye turns white and then you die. And the idea that you can actually have your sight restored has not really permeated all levels of myanmar society. Whitaker what does that tell you about the state of eye care here . Dr. Tabin well, its a place we can make a difference. Whitaker burma is one of the poorest countries in asia, slowly emerging from the darkness of decades of dictatorship. After years of trying, tabin and ruit finally were permitted to bring their treatment here. We met them in taunggyi, in central burma, where the lack of care has led to some of the highest rates of cataracts in the world. Through radio and pamphlets and conversation, word of the doctors visit spread. Hundreds of burmese whod lost their sight found their way to taunggyis hospital, with the help of care givers many trekking for days. Here, cataracts are not just a malady of old age; they take the sight of the very young, too, caused by infections and malnutrition. I think its better to redo it. Whitaker by the time the doctors scrubbed in, the corridors were choked with people hoping to have their sight restored. Is it ever daunting . I mean, you look out there and you see that line of people, all who need this surgery. Dr. Tabin its daunting on a worldwide basis. It may be a long line, but this individual person, im going to give the very best care i can. Whitaker dr. Ruit set a rapid pace. He repaired an eye; the patient got up; the next patient was ready on an adjoining table. Just minutes an eye, then onto the next. Dr. Tabin performed the delicate surgery just feet away. Dr. Tabin want to take a look . See how nice and clear that is. I dont know what that was, maybe four or five minutes. And its going from total blindness to great vision. Whitaker they kept up this pace until 7 00 in the evening. Its almost like an Assembly Line but Assembly Line sounds too mechanical. I mean, this is peoples eyes. Dr. Tabin its peoples lives. You know, once someone goes blind in a developing world, their Life Expectancy is about onethird that of age and health matched peers. And for a blind child, the Life Expectancy is five years. And also in the developing world, it takes, often, a person out of the work force, or a child out of school, to care for the blind person. So when we restore sight to a blind person, were freeing up their family and restoring their life. Whitaker among the throng waiting to have their lives restored, we found kancchi. Her son, a farmer, had been her eyes and devoted caretaker since cataracts took her sight. 15yearold yawnu had been blind since age seven. He was overwhelmed, but grateful. Thank you, he said. Drs. Ruit and tabin heard that a lot. In four days in taunggyi, with the help of local doctors they were training, they performed 503 cataract surgeries. Her eyes now bandaged, kancchi waited with her son. You are going to be performing as many cataract surgeries as the hospital does normally in a year. Dr. Ruit we are basically here to ignite fire. Ignite fire of the possibility of doing highquality, high volume cataract surgery. It is still possible. Whitaker you want to ignite a fire here. Dr. Ruit ignite a fire here. Whitaker as long as he can remember, sanduk ruit has been burning to change the world around him. He grew up desperately poor, in this village with no electricity or running water, high in the himalayas of nepal. The nearest school was a 15day walk away. Ruits illiterate parents saw education as the way out for their children, but the grip of poverty and poor health was too strong to escape. His younger sister, with whom he was very close, died of tuberculosis. Dr. Ruit i saw her pass away in front of me. And then it was a very strong determination from inside that maybe this is the profession that i should take and make healthcare available for my countrymen. Whitaker that determination took him to medical school in india. He came back to nepal an eye doctor, committed to bringing modern care to remote mountain villages. The documentary out of the darkness showed them carrying equipment on their backs. His team hiked for days. His goal, as revolutionary as it was simple to cure blindness in the third world with a quick, cheap technique to remove cataracts. Soon the medical world took notice and so did a young geoff tabin. Dr. Tabin i imposed myself on sanduk and came to work in nepal. Whitaker what did you think of him when he first showed up . Dr. Ruit you know, i was a bit scared in the beginning, you know. He had tremendous energy. He would never get tired. Energy in working, energy in eating, energy in drinking. Energy in talking, you know . Whitaker it was like being hit by a human avalanche. Fitting, since geoff tabins passion was mountaineering, more than medicine. Hed raced through yale, oxford and harvard medical school, but he had made his name as one of the first people to climb the highest peak on every continent. He met dr. Ruit and thought hed found his next challenge. Ruit was skeptical this frenetic young man had the same dedication to ophthalmology he had to adventure. Dr. Ruit i sent him to an to a hospital in eastern part of nepal, in the middle of summer. And i said, hes not going to survive there. Dr. Tabin during the summer, in the monsoon, its quite oppressive. Its sort of 100, 105, with a 99 humidity, and lots of mosquitoes. Whitaker wait a minute. You sent him to a difficult place on purpose dr. Ruit difficult place. Difficult definitely, yeah. Whitaker did you know that he was testing you . Dr. Tabin no. I thought he sent me there because there was so much need. I scratched my mosquito bites and was excited to go to work, that there were all of these blind people that, you know, i could make a difference in their life. Whitaker he won you over . Dr. Ruit yes, yes, definitely. Whitaker their relationship has grown from teacher student to collaborators and friends. Like yin and yang, these opposites complement each other. They created the himalayan cataract project, started here at tilganga, ruits hospital in kathmandu. They perfected the procedure called small incision cataract surgery just one small splice, the cataract comes out, a new manmade lens goes in, no stitches required. Its quick and costs about 20. How does the quality of care youre providing here compare to the quality of care youd be able to provide in the u. S. . Dr. Tabin for these advanced cataracts, im performing the same quality of surgery that i would be doing in america. Whitaker dr. Tabin spent most of this year at the university of utah where cataract surgery costs a couple thousand dollars an eye. He might do four or five a day. Here, he does that many in a half hour, removing cataracts hed never see in the u. S. Because theyd never go untreated so long. Their project is funded by donations and grants. Theyre able to keep costs down because they dont use expensive equipment, and they make their own lenses at their factory in nepal. The lenses are crucial to the process. Theyre a permanent implant. Each costs about 4. In the u. S. , because of strict safety requirements, they can cost 50 times more. Comparable quality . Dr. Ruit very comparable. Id put that in my mothers eyes. Whitaker so far, theyve operated in two dozen countries, including north korea, ethiopia and now burma. Theyve brought hundreds of doctors, including the burmese doctors working with them, to tilganga for training. And everywhere they go, they train other doctors to carry on their work once theyve moved on. Dr. Ruit how many fingers . Whitaker we saw the immediate benefit the morning after surgery. Dr. Ruit how many . Whitaker the patients gathered in a buddhist monastery. As the bandages came off, first wonder then smiles and celebration. Remember u myint oo, blind for two years . His family sent us this picture. He can read again, his favorite pastime. 15yearold yawnu, blind half his life, seemed somewhat bewildered by this new world of sight. For kancchi, the wait was over. Her son was overcome when she saw his face for the first time in years. Then there was this woman. Is this the first time shes been able to see in months . Yes. Whitaker she called drs. Ruit and tabin gods. They assured her they are not, but in this room it certainly seemed they had performed miracles. Hallelujah whitaker the doctors recently got more good news. 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But when you meet ai weiwei, hes softspoken, self deprecating and shy the last person youd expect to be an enemy of the state. They thought your intention was to subvert state power. Ai weiwei which is true. Williams which is true. You want to bring down the Chinese Government . Ai weiwei not bring down. I dont think i have the power to bring it down. Williams but you want it to change. Ai weiwei yes. Of course. Williams those are dangerous words in china, where even after decades of modernization, the government has little tolerance for dissent. But thats never bothered ai weiwei. This is the work hes perhaps most famous for. What youre seeing in the background is a portrait of chinas revered former dictator mao zedong, part of a series in which weiwei gives the finger to other symbols of power around the world. Ai weiwei just like this. laughs williams it laughs are, are we creating a new a new ai weiwei as we stand here . Ai weiwei you can see. Its so easy. Everybody can do it. Williams easy. Certainly not subtle, and maybe a little silly. But the chinese authorities took them very seriously. They thought it was subversive. Why was the regime frightened of art . Ai weiwei because theyre afraid of freedom, and art is about freedom. Williams theyre afraid of freedom. Ai weiwei yes. Williams are you an artist, or are you an activist . Ai weiwei i think, artist and activist is the same thing. As artist, you always have to be an activist. Williams you have to be political to be a good artist. Ai weiwei i think every art, if its relevant, is political. Evan osnos thats the purpose of his life. Williams evan osnos is a writer for the new yorker, who spent years in beijing and chronicled ai weiweis confrontations with the authorities. He calls him an entrepreneur of provocation. What does that mean . Osnos it means that no matter what hes doing, hes figuring out a way not to cooperate with the prevailing wisdom or the people in charge. And this can make a lot of people very angry. Williams whats wrong with how things are, to ai weiweis mind . Osnos in china, you are being constantly told that the world today is so much better today than it was 20 or 30 or 40 years ago, when Chinese People were literally starving. That you should be satisfied. And what ai weiwei is saying is, absolutely not. You should demand more. Williams its not good enough to be rich . Osnos exactly. Its not good enough to be rich; you need to be free as well. Williams in 2008, ai weiweis oneman rebellion turned into a war with the Chinese Government, after a massive earthquake shook sichuan province. It killed almost 90,000 people, including several thousand children, many of whom were crushed in poorlybuilt government schools. It was a national trauma, and the authorities tried to put a lid on the publics anger by covering up the number of children who died. It was a state secret how many children had died in these schools . Ai weiwei yeah. They always use that as some kind of, you know, excuse not to give you the correct numbers. Williams weiwei assembled a team of activists to interview the parents, many of whom had lost their only child. He called it a citizens investigation. China had never seen anything like it. So you were trying to get to the truth. Why did that make the Chinese Government so angry . Ai weiwei to control the information, to the limit the truth. Its most efficient tactics for Totalitarian Society for the rulers. Williams he gathered the names of more than 5,000 dead children and published a list on the internet, shaming his government, and across china, people took notice. It was a challenge to the Governments Authority . Osnos and they couldnt accept it. It was an act of radical transparency. Nobody had ever done that before, and they didnt immediately know how to respond. They had never really encountered a person like ai weiwei. Williams what what were they worried that he might do . Osnos inspire people. Inspire people to do and live the way that he did. Williams the chinese authorities responded brutally. Ai weiwei says police beat him up, and he later had to be hospitalized. Doctors discovered bleeding in his brain which he says could have killed him. He documented it all on social media for his followers around the world, infuriating the government and escalating the confrontation. Osnos he weaponized social media. He figured out that in a country in that controls information so carefully, that seizing the tools of information distribution is a very powerful thing to do. Williams what did the Chinese Government think about that . Osnos they began to think he was a very dangerous person. Williams ai weiwei was groomed to be a dissident since childhood. His father, ai qing, was a celebrated poet who was denounced as a traitor and exiled with his family to the edge of chinas gobi desert, where weiwei watched his fathers humiliation as he was forced to clean public toilets. You were an outsider from the beginning. Ai weiwei yes, im a natural outsider. I always been pushed out, and but that also give me very special angle to look at things. Williams it made you an independent thinker. Ai weiwei it made me a individual, and i was always having to make my judgement independently, because the mainstream will never accept somebody like me. Williams weiwei got out of china at the first opportunity, moving to new york in the early 1980s. He was intoxicated by the city, chronicling everything in pictures, drawing inspiration from american masters like andy warhol, and stringing together a living doing odd jobs and street art. So you were drawing portraits of people, and ai weiwei yeah. Williams selling them for how much . Ai weiwei 15, 15. Williams 15 . Some of his work now sells for millions, but in america, he discovered something you cant put a price on. You once said that once youve experienced freedom, it stays in your heart. Is that true . Ai weiwei yeah, its true. I think its true. You taste the most important thing in life, and you will never forget it. Yeah. Williams after a decade in the u. S. , he moved back to china and set up a studio in beijing, breaking new ground and challenging old sensibilities with mischievous, provocative art, like this piece, in which weiwei photographed himself destroying a 2000yearold chinese urn. He wants to shatter the communist partys official version of history. You smashed a priceless urn. Ai weiwei its not priceless. Williams for a lot of Chinese People, its its a priceless part of their history. Ai weiwei for me to smash it is a valuable act. Williams if you buy that and the art world certainly did look at what he did to these urns doused in bright paint, or emblazoned with the cocacola logo, paying tribute to his idol, andy warhol. By 2010, new commissions were rolling in, and weiweis work grew more ambitious. Not all of it was political. He cast giant animal heads in bronze and sent them on tour around the world. He hired 1,600 artisans to handcraft porcelain sunflower seeds, then carpeted the floor of a giant atrium in london with 100 million of them. It captivated the public, and helped turn ai weiwei into an art scene superstar. Youre the darling of the art world. Ai weiwei im a darling of art world. I dont really care. Williams you dont care. Ai weiwei no, i dont really care. They can just forget about me. I dont care. Williams but theyre not forgetting about you. Ai weiwei well, thats their problem, you know . laughs they should. They should learn how to forget about me. Williams the Chinese Government wanted everyone to forget about ai weiwei, blocking his name on the internet in china and making it impossible to search for him. But that didnt stop weiwei from needling the authorities relentlessly. When they put his studio under surveillance, weiwei decorated the cameras with lanterns, then fashioned replicas out of marble for his exhibitions. When officers were ordered to follow his every move, he got his own cameraman to film them filming him, ridiculing the state in a way no one else in china had ever dared. Osnos i mean, in a way, people have learned to be, keep your head down. And ai weiwei doesnt. Hes, no, im not gonna keep my head down. Im gonna wave my big head with my beard and my crazy haircut all over the place and youll have to deal with it. Williams he was making the Chinese Government look ridiculous. Osnos yeah. He was mocking it. He was mocking it. And the Chinese Government is many things, but it is not possessed of an abundant sense of humor. And i think, you know, at a certain point, they said, were not going to take it anymore. Williams and they didnt. Early one morning in 2011, as he was about to board a plane, they put a hood over his head and took him away. It was the beginning of 81 harrowing days in solitary confinement, under 24hour surveillance. They watched you shower. They watched you use the toilet. They watched you when you were asleep at night. They were trying to humiliate you. Ai weiwei i think thats the very routine way when they detain somebody they think is very important. Williams were they trying to break your spirit . Ai weiwei i think they dont have to try. Williams did they break you . Ai weiwei somehow, i think. Williams when he was released from detention, his passport was confiscated and he was forbidden from speaking publicly. Ai weiwei i cannot talk, im so sorry. Williams but ai weiwei couldnt help himself. He recreated his prison cell with these threedimensional models, which were exhibited around the world. It helped pile pressure on the Chinese Government, and two years ago, he was finally given his passport back. Within days, he was on a plane out of china, setting up a new studio in berlin. When we visited him, hed shifted his attention to the plight of refugees struggling to reach europe, turning these clothes they discarded into a new work. He told us hes staying in europe for the time being, out of concern for the safety of his young son. But he hasnt ruled out moving back. Ai weiwei has now left china. Doesnt that mean that the Chinese Government has won . Osnos i dont think so. I think im not sure how far we are into the game here. But the game is not over. Williams he might start the fight again with the chinese regime . Osnos laughs i would not be surprised. Any time people have sort of counted him out, theyve been proven wrong. 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