The sister of artist and dissident Ai Weiwei says that during his time in jail, Ai was not tortured and received food and his medications regularly. But he was kept in a tiny cell, 6 cell tiles wide in either direction, and under conditions that amounted to psychological pressure. When he paced inside that tiny cell, she said, he was followed by two guards, who accompanied him everywhere, all the time. From a Washington Post interview:

"The room light was on 24 hours every day," she said. "The only furniture in the room was a bed. Except for the bed, there was nothing else in the room, no chair, no desk. They didn't offer Ai anything– no book, no newspaper, no TV, no radio, not even a piece of paper or a pen."

Gao said the two guards watched him constantly, never speaking; the officers changed shifts every three hours.

"They stared at him without ever moving their eyes," she said, adding that they stood close by even while he used the toilet. "And when he took a shower, they just stood right next to him, even though they were getting totally wet.

"Can you imagine the feeling of having four eyes always on you, no matter what you do?" Gao said. "If you lie down and go to sleep, they just stand at the side of the bed and look at you without a blink of the eye. When he had a walk in the room, they also followed him. These measures were designed to destroy people's minds," she said.