Beijing deported a prominent Chinese-Australian artist on Monday, capping one of China’s most severe crackdowns on dissent in recent years.
Guo Jian, 52, was detained on June 1 for an alleged visa violation, according to China’s foreign affairs ministry. But friends of Mr Guo and human rights activists suspect the real reason for his deportation were his comments about the June 4 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which had been published a day earlier in the Financial Times along with pictures of his provocative artwork.
In one piece, Mr Guo covered a billiard table-sized diorama of Tiananmen Square with 160kg of minced pork, in an installation that evoked memories of the June 4 massacre in which hundreds if not thousands of people died.