The Chinese government has a history of harassing artist Ai Weiwei that goes back years and includes police detention and even beatings that have led to his hospitalization. Still, his arrest on Sunday at Beijing's airport, coming amid a wider crackdown on dissent in society, has supporters worrying that the artist's predicament has escalated to a new level of seriousness. More than a day after he vanished into custody, his whereabouts remain unknown, and international calls for information continue to mount. 

Alison Klayman is a documentary filmmaker who has been working for more than two years on a film about the artist, titled "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," that charts both his preparation for international art shows and his intensifying clashes with authorities between 2008 and 2010. ARTINFO deputy editor Ben Davis spoke with Klayman this morning about the context of the new arrest.  

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You've been working with Ai Weiwei for several years. Can you give any background for the current situation?

This is a risk that has always been there, that Ai Weiwei is aware of, and that I think everyone has always been aware of. But there has never been this severe a coordinated crackdown on him and his associates and his work. So certainly what is happening right now is unprecedented. It feels like a game-changer, though it is also too early to really know. We are still just completely in the dark. We don't know if there are any actual charges, or what they're doing with him right now.

What makes this arrest seem different? 

Certainly over the last two years while I have been friends with him and filmed him he has had encounters with police in Sichuan and with authorities in Shanghai and Beijing. The way that this current incident was orchestrated though, it feels as if they really thought through how to respond to him. He's been detained at the airport before, of course, around the time of Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize. Just as in the current case, that was an incident that happened against the backdrop of a lot of people suffering the same type of thing. In that particular case, there was a crackdown involving a whole list of people: Liu Xiaobo's wife invited a list of people to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony, because she wasn't going to be able to attend, and his family wasn't able to attend, because of China's government restrictions. The government responded by widening these same restrictions to a group of people, including Ai. In this present case, there is also a broader context: We have been reading for weeks about people disappearing, which is possibly China's response to the idea of a "Jasmine Revolution." When Ai Weiwei was detained at the airport last December, he recorded the encounter, he put a video up on YouTube, and even after this happened, he was then able to travel just a couple of weeks later. But this case does feel a lot different. It was very coordinated. At the same time that they detained him, they also raided his studio. While they were doing so, they didn't permit anyone else to record. And he hasn't been able to communicate since the detention. So, the authorities know the way that he operates, which is all about transparency and documentation. And they really want to make it so that he can't operate in this way at all at this moment.

Based on the two years you've spent following him, this seems like a clear escalation of persecution?

Yes. The coordinated nature of it and the fact that he's been detained for more than 24 hours shows that this is definitely an escalation.

That wasn't the case before. His whereabouts were always known?

In other detentions, he's never been completely alone. When he was detained in the hotel in Sichuan, they detained the whole floor that was filled with his volunteers and friends, so he wasn't alone in that case. In December, when he was held at the airport, the people who had accompanied him knew what had happened. On the Beijing side, nobody went through for the flight, and everyone was able to wait until he was released very soon after.

One of the striking things about the current incident is that there is so little information — deliberately little information, it seems. There's an interview with Ai Weiwei's wife where she says that the police wouldn't even tell her what her husband was charged with. Is it your impression that the authorities are actually looking for specific evidence against him or are they attempting to harass him more generally?

It's really difficult to say. But they confiscated all his office's computers, and based on the questions that his assistants were asked, it does seem that they were gathering information. But we can't really know if it is just to intimidate or if they will eventually level charges. Human Rights in China is monitoring this case right now, both from their Hong Kong office and here in New York. According to them, Chinese law requires authorities to issue a formal detention warrant within 12 hours of picking up an individual, and notify family within 24 hours of formal detention. So I think it's pretty clear already that his detention is an illegal detention

It seems clear from various accounts that what the law says the authorities in China have to do is different that what they actually do.

Especially in the current climate. A Human Right Watch China researcher gave a quote in the Washington Post yesterday, and made a really spot-on point. He said that this wasn't just a normal tightening and loosening type of crackdown — this really represents China attempting to redraw the boundaries of what it is permissible to speak. And I couldn't think of a more symbolic person to take action against than Ai Weiwei, who has always been a symbol for everyone who speaks their mind.

You said that the police had specific questions for Ai Weiwei's assistants. What kind of questions were they?

We have that information in the update on our blog. Foreigners were asked about their visa status and salaries. There were questions about how many people were working at the studio, what kind of work they do, and so on.

He was already talking about the possibility of relocating to Europe because of the limits of his ability to express himself. And the goal here seems to be specifically to send a message that it is impossible for him to express himself. On the other hand, he's stuck it out through some pretty severe stuff in the past. How do you think this affects whether he'll stay in China at all?

That to me is a big question mark, and I really hope someday I have a chance to ask him in person. There were interviews he has given about Europe — I knew about the Berlin studio, and that he was interested in it — but he wasn't saying that he was interested in the studio because he really wanted to be located in Berlin. And I very strongly believe that he does not want to leave China, on principle. It has been his choice to remain a Chinese citizen and remain in Beijing for the last 20 years. But, at the same time, I know that nobody wants him to undergo personal harm, if it comes to him leaving or him staying and being completely unfree. So, I think we will have to see what options are on the table and what he decides to do. It's really not clear. I don't think people who really know him know the answer to that question.

The name of your documentary "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," and it is true, one thing that is striking is how stubborn the guy is. I wonder if you can make a general comment on the mindset that has led him to stick it out through this kind of persecution.

I really think you can describe his activist efforts, and also his artistic efforts, as tireless. I mean, he will be thorough — once he gets into something, he really gets into something. When he gets into Twitter, he is sending sometimes 300 to 500 Tweets a day. When he undergoes injustice personally in Chengdu, when the police beat him, he continues to gather information and return to Chengdu to seek redress from authorities. When the Sichuan earthquake happened and he was so moved by the tragedy, he didn't just write some blog posts about it and say that was that. He found a way to engage people, to put new information out there. He found all those children's names, and continued to post their birthdays for more than a year afterward on Twitter. When you know him a little and you see that dedication, you really understand how genuine his efforts are. Because you always have to remember, he doesn't have to do any of this. I really think that is one of the messages of the film, and its something you can see if you watch the Frontline piece I did that draws on the same material.

How would you like to see international observers respond now?

I am really happy about the response of the German foreign minister, who has spoken out. I really think now is the time. With less than 24 hours and no contact from him, I was already feeling like I wanted to hear people making statements. Now that it has been more than 24 hours, I think that there is room to ask loudly "Where is he, is he safe?" We need to know where he is. I think that no matter what kind of relation our government has to China, these are fair questions. Really, what I am hoping is that we do not remain in the darkness any longer. But while we are in this situation, I would like to hear the secretary of state asking about Ai Weiwei, yes.

The tag-line of your film is, "Can an artist change China?" Does an incident like this shake your faith that that is possible?

That's also a great question. I think about this all the time. I am an optimist, in that I believe that if you just change one person you have made an impact. And I know how many individuals Ai Weiwei has touched. It's a lot more than the average person, because of the audiences that see his work — and even the people who see his work internationally make a difference for China, because that affects the whole world's perception and interaction with China. The number of followers he has on Twitter, the number of people who work for him, whether in his studio or as craftsman and people at factories that work for him — I really believe that impacting the individual makes a difference. Now, in terms of systemic change, China is a difficult case because it has a very entrenched regime in power, and that's why I think it's really an interesting question, "Can an artist change China?" Not "Can one man change China?" A lot of men have changed China, on the political side. But what does it mean for an artist to change China? I think that is a really interesting question.