2026年5月27日 / 美国东部时间上午10:16 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
作者：梅根·菲茨帕特里克（Meghan Fitzpatrick）
作为当代艺术界最具影响力的人物之一，艾未未正就全球范围内的审查制度危险发出警告，并阐述为何西方的审查状况正在恶化。
“我对审查制度的反应非常简单，就是揭露真相，揭露细节，”艾未未在接受《CBS早间新闻》采访时说道。
没有人比艾未未更适合讨论这个话题。在他的新书《论审查制度》中，这位享誉世界的艺术家——他曾公然向中国当局比中指——详细描述了当局如何干预他的创作，以及他如何回应。
2009年，当警察在中国四川省将他带走时，他拍下了一张自拍。他还拍摄了自家屋外的监控摄像头和工作室外的监控车。
“如今的监控技术极其精密，”艾未未说，“这就像战争。”
随后在2011年，艾未未被秘密关押了81天。之后他制作了微缩模型，还原了他的小牢房和24小时看守他的两名警卫。获释一年后，艾未未决定在家中安装网络摄像头并对自己进行直播——直到中国当局下令拆除。
“我确实直播了，”艾未未说，并补充道当时“有数百万观众观看我睡觉、挖鼻子。他们抓取了大量画面。随后警察打电话给我说：‘艾未未，关掉直播。’我说：‘我这么做是为了你们。’”
“他们想偷偷摸摸地对你做这些事，但如果你公开这么做——不知为何他们无法接受这种心理，”他补充道。
2015年，艾未未在工作室的电源插座里发现了窃听器。
“它们都在运行。就像你在桌子底下发现一条蛇，而且不止一条，”艾未未说。
艾未未重返中国
2015年，艾未未离开中国，当时他的儿子艾老（Ai Lao）年仅6岁。出于对儿子的担忧，他直到去年12月才带着已经17岁的艾老回到中国，探望他93岁的母亲。艾未未表示，母亲曾担心他回国会带来后果。
“我告诉她，没关系，任何后果我都能接受，”艾未未说，“如果我做了一个决定，那这个决定是基于我的判断和本心。”
艾未未回忆称，中国政府对他的到访“相当意外”。
“他们看着我的护照说：‘哦，你回来了？’我说：‘是的，我持有这本中国护照，’”艾未未回忆道。
艾未未在机场的一间后台房间被拘留和审讯，而他的儿子则被关在另一个房间。近两小时后他们才被释放。在中国逗留21天后，艾未未表示，他感觉“中国还是原来的中国”。
“我的访问相当愉快，和母亲一起吃饭，包了七次饺子。那是快乐的时刻。还有，我的儿子牵着我母亲的手，”艾未未说。
审查制度的危害
在书中，艾未未写道：“在中国，审查制度全天候运作。”他称其为“精神奴役的不可或缺的工具”。艾未未表示，大多数中国人并不认识他，因为中国的审查制度“非常精密”。他说，如果你询问中国的人工智能平台深度求索（DeepSeek）“艾未未是谁？”，它会在几秒钟后回复：“我们来聊点别的吧。”
艾未未说，他是一个既存在又不存在的人。
艾未未在书中写道：“实际上，审查制度无处不在。只要有权威存在——无论是政治、经济还是文化层面的权威——审查制度就无所不在。”曾在纽约生活了12年的艾未未认为，西方的审查制度正在愈演愈烈。
“我认为西方不再捍卫最基本的人性、理性、人权和言论自由。所有这些都被刻意忽视了，这有点令人惊讶，因为我认为这是所谓民主社会的基础，”艾未未说。
艾未未表示，他相信许多人并没有意识到审查制度的存在。
“如果一条鱼生活在鱼缸里，它常常会认为那就是海洋，而浑然不觉，”他说。
尽管艾未未在中国和葡萄牙仍各有一间工作室，但他始终在奔波。他在4月底曾身处纽约，在那里的莲花俱乐部（The Lotus Club）获得了荣誉。艾未未称自己是“一个几乎无处不在，却又无家可归的人”，自称是一名旅行者，一个永远的“移动靶”。
“我甚至从未想过生活应该安稳，你知道的。生活充满惊喜，它会随惊喜而来，也会随惊喜而去，”艾未未说。
Ai Weiwei warns of worsening censorship in the West: “No longer defending very basic humanity”
May 27, 2026 / 10:16 AM EDT / CBS News
By Meghan Fitzpatrick
Ai Weiwei, one of the largest forces in contemporary art, is warning about the dangers of censorship around the world, and why it’s getting worse in the West.
“My reaction to censorship, it’s very simple. It’s just reveal the truth. Reveal the details,” Ai told “CBS Mornings.”
No one is more qualified to discuss the topic than Ai. In his new book, “On Censorship,” the renowned artist, who has literally given the Chinese authorities the middle finger, describes how they have interfered with his work — and how he responded.
In 2009, when police took him away in the Sichuan province of China, he took a selfie photo. He also photographed the surveillance cameras outside his house and the surveillance van outside his studio.
“Surveillance techniques today are extremely sophisticated,” Ai said. “It’s like warfare.”
Then in 2011, Ai was held for 81 days in secretive detention. He later made dioramas showing his small cell and the two guards who stood over him 24 hours a day. A year after his detention, Ai decided to put webcams in his house and livestream himself — until the Chinese authorities ordered him to take them down.
“I had livestreamed it.” Ai said, adding there were “millions of people watching how I sleep and how I pick my nose. They grab a lot of images. Then police called me and said, ‘Weiwei, shut it down.’ I said, ‘I did it for you.’”
“They want to, secretly, to do this to you. But if you do it publicly — somehow they cannot accept this psychology,” he added.
In 2015, Ai found listening devices in his studio’s electrical sockets.
“They’re all alive. It’s like you find a snake under the table, but not just one,” Ai said.
Ai Weiwei’s return to China
Ai left China in 2015 when his son, Ai Lao, was 6. Out of concern for his son, he didn’t return until last December, when he went back with Ai Lao, now 17, to visit his 93-year-old mother. Ai said his mother was worried about the consequences of his return to the country.
“I told her, that’s fine. Any kind of consequence I can accept,” Ai said. “If I make a decision, that decision is based on my judgment and my heart.”
Ai recalled the Chinese government being “quite surprised” when he arrived at the airport.
“They look at my passport to say, ‘Oh, you come back?’ I said, ‘Yes, I have this Chinese passport,’” Ai recounted.
Ai was detained and interrogated in a backroom at the airport while his son was held in a separate room. They were released nearly two hours later. After spending 21 days in the country, Ai said he felt, “China is still the same China.”
“My visit was rather pleasant. Eating with my mother, cooking dumplings seven times. And it was happy moment. And uh, my son hold my mom’s hands,” Ai said.
Dangers of censorship
In his book, Ai writes, “In China, censorship operates around the clock.” He calls it an “indispensable tool of mental enslavement.” Ai said most people in China don’t know who he is because the country’s censorship is “very sophisticated.” He said if you ask China’s AI platform, DeepSeek, “Who is Ai Weiwei?” it will respond a few seconds later with, “Let’s talk about something else.”
Ai said he is a person who both exists and does not exist.
Ai writes in his book that “in reality, censorship exists everywhere. Wherever authority is present – be it political, economic or cultural – censorship is omnipresent.” Ai, who lived in New York for 12 years, believes censorship in the West is getting worse.
“I think West are no longer defending very basic humanity, rationality, human rights, freedom of speech. All those things [are] purposely being neglected, which is a bit surprising because I think this is a foundation of the so-called the democratic society,” Ai said.
Ai said he believes many people are not aware of censorship.
“If a fish lives in the fish tank, very often they think that’s the ocean, and they just don’t know,” he said.
While Ai still has a studio in China and another in Portugal, he’s constantly moving. He was in New York in late April, where he was honored at The Lotus Club. Ai said he’s a “person almost everywhere, but lives in nowhere,” calling himself a traveler and a constant “moving target.”
“I never even think life should be safe, you know. It comes with surprise. It will go with surprise,” Ai said.