Ai Weiwei helped design Beijing's Olympic stadium. But he regrets how it's being used today

Credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Ai Weiwei helped design Beijing's Olympic stadium. But he regrets how it's being used today

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Written by Jacqui PalumboChristiane Amanpour, CNN

Contributors Henry Hullah, CNN

Christiane Amanpour's interview with Ai Weiwei airs Friday 1pm ET. See more here.

As the Beijing Winter Olympics gets underway, artist Ai Weiwei is once again criticizing China's ruling Communist Party -- and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which he said is "ignoring" the safety of the country's athletes by prioritizing business and "standing next to the authoritarians."

The world-renowned Chinese dissident and rights activist made the comments to CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an interview from Portugal, where he has been living in self-exile since 2021. Fearing for his safety were he to return to China, where he was once detained for 81 days for "inciting the subversion of state power," Ai has resided around Europe for almost seven years.

Years prior to his departure from his home country, Ai famously consulted on the design of the venue hosting Friday night's opening ceremony: The Beijing National Stadium, or "Bird's Nest."

The open-roofed structure, wrapped in interwoven steel structs, functioned as one of the main venues for the Summer Olympics in 2008. A collaboration with Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the stadium took five years to build and was designed to represent a new, modern China.

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But the artist distanced himself from the project and criticized China's hosting of the Olympics ahead of the opening ceremony, believing it to be a propaganda tool at odds with what he felt were the oppressive realities of life in the country.

"Unfortunately, as an architect, you cannot control how the building is being used," Ai told Amanpour in the interview, which airs Friday. "For me it's a big disappointment, not only in how it's being used but also in the directions China (has taken) in past decades."

In his recently published book "1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows," Ai wrote about the stadium's design, which was inspired by the art of Chinese ceramics. It "aimed to convey the message that freedom was possible," he wrote, and "encapsulated something essential about democracy, transparency and equity."

"We have to defend everybody who has been mistreated, and only by doing that, can we build a better future."

Ai Weiwei

When asked if he really believed, back then, that China would become democratic, free and transparent, Ai responded, "Well, by that time, of course I believed so. But at this moment, I doubt (it)," adding that that the country has, in many ways, gone "backwards."

In the lead up to this year's Winter games, which Ai has also been openly critical of, China has been subjected to increased international scrutiny, from its alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang to its stringent Covid-19 policies to the global concern for the well-being of Chinese tennis player and three-time Olympian, Peng Shuai. Peng disappeared from public view for over two weeks after she accused a former top Communist Party official of sexual assault.

Beijing denies allegations of human rights abuses and has dismissed fears for Peng's safety as "malicious speculation." The IOC, meanwhile, did not respond directly to Ai's accusations, but said in a statement to CNN that it "recognizes and upholds human rights," which are "enshrined" in both the Olympic Charter and the organization's code of ethics. "Given the diverse participation in the Olympic Games," read the statement, "the IOC must remain neutral on global political issues."

But Ai argued that the IOC has "never" been neutral. "They're always standing next to the authoritarians or business," he told Amanpour. "Since the 2008 Olympics, they have been working with the government's propaganda, and this time they are (doing so) even more. They are ignoring the top (Chinese) athletes' safety and well-being."

While the dissident artist has not called for athletes to boycott the games, he appealed to their "sense of justice and fairness," adding: "The Games is about fairness, the competition is about fairness. And so, athletes representing human spirit (should) of course defend those very important issues, such as human rights and freedom of speech.