Ai Weiwei warns of worsening censorship in the West: "No longer defending very basic humanity"

May 27, 2026 / 10:16 AM EDT / CBS News

Ai Weiwei, one of the largest forces in contemporary art, is warning about the dangers of censorship around the world, and why it's getting worse in the West.

"My reaction to censorship, it's very simple. It's just reveal the truth. Reveal the details," Ai told "CBS Mornings."

No one is more qualified to discuss the topic than Ai. In his new book, "On Censorship," the renowned artist, who has literally given the Chinese authorities the middle finger, describes how they have interfered with his work — and how he responded.

In 2009, when police took him away in the Sichuan province of China, he took a selfie photo. He also photographed the surveillance cameras outside his house and the surveillance van outside his studio.

"Surveillance techniques today are extremely sophisticated," Ai said. "It's like warfare."

Then in 2011, Ai was held for 81 days in secretive detention. He later made dioramas showing his small cell and the two guards who stood over him 24 hours a day. A year after his detention, Ai decided to put webcams in his house and livestream himself — until the Chinese authorities ordered him to take them down.

"I had livestreamed it." Ai said, adding there were "millions of people watching how I sleep and how I pick my nose. They grab a lot of images. Then police called me and said, 'Weiwei, shut it down.' I said, 'I did it for you.'"

"They want to, secretly, to do this to you. But if you do it publicly — somehow they cannot accept this psychology," he added.

In 2015, Ai found listening devices in his studio's electrical sockets.

"They're all alive. It's like you find a snake under the table, but not just one," Ai said.

Ai left China in 2015 when his son, Ai Lao, was 6. Out of concern for his son, he didn't return until last December, when he went back with Ai Lao, now 17, to visit his 93-year-old mother. Ai said his mother was worried about the consequences of his return to the country.

"I told her, that's fine. Any kind of consequence I can accept," Ai said. "If I make a decision, that decision is based on my judgment and my heart."

Ai recalled the Chinese government being "quite surprised" when he arrived at the airport.

"They look at my passport to say, 'Oh, you come back?' I said, 'Yes, I have this Chinese passport,'" Ai recounted.

Ai was detained and interrogated in a backroom at the airport while his son was held in a separate room. They were released nearly two hours later. After spending 21 days in the country, Ai said he felt, "China is still the same China."

"My visit was rather pleasant. Eating with my mother, cooking dumplings seven times. And it was happy moment. And uh, my son hold my mom's hands," Ai said.

In his book, Ai writes, "In China, censorship operates around the clock." He calls it an "indispensable tool of mental enslavement." Ai said most people in China don't know who he is because the country's censorship is "very sophisticated." He said if you ask China's AI platform, DeepSeek, "Who is Ai Weiwei?" it will respond a few seconds later with, "Let's talk about something else."

Ai said he is a person who both exists and does not exist.

Ai writes in his book that "in reality, censorship exists everywhere. Wherever authority is present – be it political, economic or cultural – censorship is omnipresent." Ai, who lived in New York for 12 years, believes censorship in the West is getting worse.

"I think West are no longer defending very basic humanity, rationality, human rights, freedom of speech. All those things [are] purposely being neglected, which is a bit surprising because I think this is a foundation of the so-called the democratic society," Ai said.

Ai said he believes many people are not aware of censorship.

"If a fish lives in the fish tank, very often they think that's the ocean, and they just don't know," he said.

While Ai still has a studio in China and another in Portugal, he's constantly moving. He was in New York in late April, where he was honored at The Lotus Club. Ai said he's a "person almost everywhere, but lives in nowhere," calling himself a traveler and a constant "moving target."

"I never even think life should be safe, you know. It comes with surprise. It will go with surprise," Ai said.