Ai Weiwei blasts tax evasion charge

Ai Weiwei has vowed to fight charges of tax evasion "to the death," after Chinese officials ordered the outspoken artist and activist topay $2.4 million in back taxesin less than two weeks.

"Will a person like Ai Weiwei surrender? In my dictionary, there's no such word surrender," the 54-year-old contemporary artist told Reuters on Wednesday. Ai spoke from his home studio in Beijing, where he was accompanied by lawyers, tax experts and his wife.

"I'm not afraid of them. I think it's improper that a country is engaging in shameless activities."

Chinese authoritiesarrested Ai at Beijing's airportin April and detained him for 81 days amid a wider crackdown on dissidents, lawyers and critics of the government. The government claimed he was taken into custody overeconomic crimes, including dodging taxes and destroying documents.Though freedafter aninternational outcry, he was initially ordered topay $1.85 millionin back taxes and fines.

Ai told Reuters he has not been shown evidence of the alleged tax evasion and said he has requested an administrative review of the situation. "I will fight them to the death," he said.

The artist added that he has been forced to use his elderly mother's house as collateral, because he does not have the money to pay the alleged back taxes and fines within the approximately two-week time period he was given.

Ai is among China's best known contemporary artists, with his photos, installations, sculptures and other artwork shown in top venues inLondon, New York and Berlin. Also an avid blogger and filmmaker, he has also been a thorn in the side of China's governmentas acritic ofits practices.

In October,influential British magazine Art Reviewchose Ai to top the listin its annual tally of the most powerful art world figures of 2011.

"Ai's power and influence derive from the fact that his work and his words have become catalysts for international political debates that affect every nation on the planet: freedom of expression, nationalism, economic power, the internet, the rights of the human being," the magazine said.