He said: “In the past few years, since Wen Jiabao (the Chinese premier) began calling for justice and freedom, some people have been misled into thinking that we really should be fighting for justice and freedom. But as Ai said, being truly patriotic in China means committing a crime, because they still cannot tolerate different voices and they use a very simple, and sometimes violent approach, to make people toe the line.” Mr Ai is the most prominent victim of a wide campaign to silence lawyers, activists and writers in recent weeks, with dozens being “disappeared” or charged with inciting subversion.