After Four Years, Chinese Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei Gets His Passport Back

Renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is able to travel overseas again after getting his passport back from the authorities, his spokeswoman said Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the avid Instagrammer posted a photo of himself holding a Chinese passport to his 110,000 followers with the words, “Today, I got my passport”.

Ai said he is legally allowed to travel outside China, but that will depend on whether other countries issue him visas.

When asked by NBC News on Wednesday why his passport was returned, Ai said: “I think I can only answer, why not?”

The Ministry of Public Security, which runs the Exit and Entry Bureau, didn’t reply to a faxed request for remark.

But the burly artist’s outspoken criticism of China’s leaders – he has referred to them as “gangsters” – and involvement in controversial social campaigns went on to make him a thorn in the government’s side. We’ll have to wait and see where his first port of call is.

In 2011, Ai was detained with none cost and held primarily in solitary confinement, sparking a world outcry. Authorities took his passport, kept him in custody for 81 days and eventually fined him $2.4 million for tax evasion.

In November 2013, the artist began protesting his journey ban by placing flowers within the basket of a bicycle outdoors his Beijing studio and residential.

But Ai added he was not surprised the passport was returned after 600 days.

Police didn’t give Ai “any further circumstances or warnings” for the return of his passport, he stated, including that it was “very relaxed”.

His passport was seized in 2011, a move that he says was “politically motivated”, although no official explanation was given regarding the confiscation.