Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has been refused a full UK business visa by the British government, which has claimed that Mr Ai has been convicted of a crime and that he lied on his visa application.
In a letter to Mr Ai posted on his Instagram account on Thursday, an entry clearance manager from UK Visas and Immigration at the British Embassy in Beijing said it was a matter of public record that Mr Ai has been convicted of a crime in China and that he lied on his visa application by not declaring this.
But although Mr Ai was abducted and detained, interrogated and intimidated by Chinese security agents without charge for nearly three months in 2011, he has never been charged or convicted of a crime in China.