Ai Weiwei Returns to China for the First Time Since 2015

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei returned to China last month after a decade-long exile in Europe. The three-week trip to Beijing marked his first visit since authorities returned his confiscated passport in 2015, ending years of travel restrictions tied to his political dissent. Ai is internationally famous for his criticism of authoritarianism and its cultural consequences—censorship, police brutality, extrajudicial incarceration—making him a longtime target of the Chinese government.