The 54 year-old artist whose biography includes working on the iconic Beijing National Stadium that was used in the 2008 Olympics, was detained on April 3 on his way to Hong Kong from Beijing.

Ai Weiwei’s troubling arrest and disappearance.
According to police in China, Ai Weiwei was arrested in connection with economic crimes, though no details have been released officially on what exactly those crimes might have been. Reports in government-owned newspapers suggest that he was arrested in connection with a failure to pay taxes. Weiwei has not been seen since his arrest, leading to international concern over his well-being and health.

China’s most famous artist and architect
Ai Weiwei, who lived in the U.S. between 1983 and 1991, is easily one of the country’s most well-known artists, documentary film makers and architects. His impressive biography includes exhibitions at the Venice Biennale show, the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Australia and the Liverpool International in 2008.

Outspoken critic of human rights violations
In addition to his artistic endeavors, Weiwei is also an outspoken critic of China’s communist government and of its human rights abuses. In interviews and commentaries both domestically and internationally, Weiwei has blasted his country’s intolerance for free speech and democratic values. In 2008, Weiwei withdrew from the team that was helping to build the Olympic stadium saying the government was using the Olympics for patriotic propaganda purposes instead of focusing on free speec and democracy. It is these actions and this aspect of his biography that no doubt resulted in his arrest in Beijing and subsequent disappearance.

Despite, widespread calls for his release, especially from western government’s the Chinese government itself has so far given no indication that it plans to release, or even bring Weiwei to trial anytime soon.

Vietnam’s state-controlled media has enabled the government to establish censorship of most news. The regime has always used firewalls for censorship of independent Web bloggers; now, it has used more advanced malware devices to collect information and damage Web sites run by prominent online critics, according to Google and McAfee. There are a number of political issues that have been the target of critical bloggers: bauxite mining, property redistribution and legal cases.

Human Rights Watch has also corroborated the use of the cyber attack against well-known critics of the Vietnamese regime. It has detailed multiple cases of police harrassment, imprisonment and the cyber attack against online critics. Telephone and internet services have been terminated on prominent online blogger Web sites, according to Human Rights Watch.

Vietnam reserves the right to take “appropriate action” against Web sites deemed to be security risks. The government has admitted that it is shutting down bad Web sites, but that the actions are not due to political dissension.

In 2009, China’s “Operation Aurora” involved a series of cyber attacks against Adobe, Google, and Yahoo. By silencing the most prominent government critics, these regimes hope to establish censorship by fear and intimidation. Because the World Wide Web has increased the free flow of ideas, information and news, oppressive governments are increasing their efforts to control this independent media format.

The “Charter 08″ and the essays by Liu Xiaobo became his inevitable fate: he was doomed to 11 years of prison. The Chinese court came to the conclusion that the writings of the activist would undermine the Chinese State. But according to many newspapers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the human rights activist merely criticized the Chinese government.

The activities of Liu Xiaobo go back to the Tiananmen protests in 1989, when he supported some students during a hunger strike. Since then, the Chinese regime might have had its sights on him. The difference between the past and modern times is that nowadays critics would simply be caught by the police – a complaint by professor Ding Zilin, the founder of the Tiananmen mothers group.

Her own son was killed during the Tiananmen massacre more than 20 years ago. The harsh sentence against Liu Xiaobo shall show all Chinese people that the communist regime is willed to nip all critique in the bud. Anybody who speaks against the Chinese government is not any longer secure. He had no chance to respond in court to the sentence.

The verdict focuses on Liu Xiaobo´s role in organizing Charter 08 back in December 2008, when he signed a document together with 300 other intellectuals, during Human Rights day. Therefore, he was already arrested for a short time; his fight for human rights was greeted by a lot of Chinese people dreaming of more freedom in their country.

The verdict stands clearly against the human rights, esp. against freedom of expression. The Chinese regime showed once more that it still does not share all Western values. Dissidents have to fear to be jailed for mere writings, which cannot be in the interest of human rights defenders. Critique against the sentence and the Chinese regime should go on; but after a bit more than two weeks, Liu Xiaobo seems to be forgotten.

His predecessor Bush was in the end very unpopular and most Americans seemed to be relieved after the great success of the Hawaii-born. But after almost one year of regency, people start to realize that even Barack Obama is not almighty, and some started to criticize him for several reasons. A radical shift to the left did not really take place, neither domestically nor external.

Nevertheless, if some could not find a change in policies: a change in style came with Obama – no question about it. The rather unilateral policy of the Bush-government was not taken over by the new one. Barack pursues dialogue which was currently made clear during his visit in China. Though there was nor real change, he strenghtened diplomatic ties: he accepted China as a big global partner, without giving up on Western values at the same time.

There are many different issues Barack Obama has to deal with concerning foreign affairs: he might be distant from the White House for the conflict in the Middle East; or to make progress in Afghanistan. Next month, the climate change conference will be held in Copenhagen. But also at home, he wants to promote the Health Care Reform and thus improve the situation of millions of U.S. citizen.

The Health Care Debates turned out to be successful for Obama when U.S. Congress voted for the biggest project related to domestic politics a few days ago. Now it is up to the Senate to decide on that topic. A Health Care Reform would mean a real change in the country, and people might start admitting: yes, he can.