BEIJING – The wife of Ai Weiwei was questioned by Chinese police for several hours Tuesday in what appears to be a growing campaign against the outspoken artist and activist.

Ai Weiwei dismissed his wife’s police interrogation as a “pressure” tactic. “They are trying to put pressure on me,” Ai told NBC News in a phone interview after his wife was released.

But Ai’s long-running battle with authorities over tax evasion allegations – which critics say were meant to silence the politically outspoken artist—took a dangerous new turn when his wife was taken away by the police for questioning as a “criminal suspect.”

“It’s doesn’t make sense,” Ai said. “They can come to me directly.” He said his wife, Lu Qing, is “not involved” in politics.

Criminal case?
Lu, the legal owner of the cultural company that manages Ai’s art projects, was suddenly taken away Tuesday by four policemen, one of them holding a video camera, and subjected to more than three hours of interrogation.

Initially refusing to go, she was brusquely told she had no choice.  “They were quite rough, they told me [I had no choice] while showing some document saying that I was a ‘criminal suspect,’’’ Lu said as she recounted the story to NBC News in a telephone interview. Her request for a lawyer was refused.

When she asked what crimes she had allegedly committed, they responded, “We cannot tell you now.”

“During the interrogation, I was seated on a chair meant for criminal suspects; they were very impolite,” she said, adding that except for a call from her husband, she was not allowed to contact her lawyer and other friends during the whole proceeding.

The interrogation itself dealt with many issues concerning the company’s operations that she said had already been touched upon in previous investigations.

She said she was asked about her income, but said that she firmly told the police, “No, you have no right to ask that.”

Taiwan connection
As a “criminal suspect,” she was told that she can be summoned again anytime and should not travel or leave Beijing.

Lu said she had been planning to travel to Taipei in early December to attend Ai’s art exhibition
aptly called “Ai Weiwei Absent.” 

The show, which began last month, features 21 works from 1983 to the present. It includes a new installation named “Forever Bicycles” – a 30-foot-high arrangement  of more than 1,000 bicycles that gives the illusion of a moving abstract which art critics say symbolizes China’ social changes.
  
Last Friday, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou visited the show and called on China to respect human rights and Ai’s freedom of expression, underscoring a major issue of contention with mainland China.

“I think they wanted to prevent me from going to Taipei,” Lu said, adding that authorities might have learned of her plans by monitoring her phone calls.

“It was not just for the art show, I really wanted to visit Taipei because I have not seen Taiwan before,” she said, lamenting the cancellation of the trip.

Widening punishment?
Lu’s temporary detention comes about a week after police also began investigating Ai’s assistant for allegedly spreading pornography online, and some two weeks after Ai deposited $1.4 million with the tax authorities, which were raised from supporters’ donations, to comply with a legal procedure that would enable him to challenge the tax evasion charges.

And on the day she was taken away for questioning, police conducted a probe of the law firm that is representing Ai.

“Two policemen of Fengtai district came to our office yesterday  while I was away and photocopied this year’s accounts, saying they wanted our help in dealing with some cases,” Pu Zhiqiang, Ai’s lawyer,  told NBC News. Pu has previously told the foreign media that he believes the tax evasion case against his client was “politically motivated.”

Asked whether the police raid was related to Ai, he said: “Nobody has said anything.” He added: “To worry is useless, and I am not worried.”  

Liu Xiaoyuan, another lawyer for Ai, told NBC News that he suspects “punishment” for his inability to renew the license for his law office, which has been pending “for exactly five months tomorrow.”

Unable to practice in Beijing, he has temporarily returned to his home province of Jiangxi.

“The authorities concerned have warned me not to talk to the media about Ai’s case but I didn’t stop talking, so I think all this is punishment,” he said in a telephone interview.

Meanwhile, repeated attempts to elicit comments from the police department involved in Lu’s case did not produce any response.

More on Ai Weiwei:
Chinese artist and activist answers readers' questions

By Ian Williams, NBC News Correspondent

BEIJING – The first time I met Andre Kajlich he was dodging Beijing traffic – in a racing wheelchair.  

"Oh yeah, it was good out there," he told me, a huge smile on his face. "You should have seen the look I got from the bus driver."

Kajlich had traveled from his Seattle home to the Chinese capital to take part in the world championship of one of the world's most demanding sports – the paratriathlon. And taking his wheelchair for a spin on the highway was just one of his ways of tuning up.

Kajlich is a double amputee. When he lost his legs in a subway accident eight years ago, doctors doubted he would ever walk again – even with prosthetics. But he was determined to prove them wrong.

"No matter what, I was going to do everything I could do," he said. And entering the grueling world of the triathlon is just his latest challenge, winning a place in the Beijing contest after just one year in the sport.

Ian Williams / NBC News

Andre Kajlich at the triathlon venue in Beijing.

Inspiring others
It's an inspirational message he's been taking to other young American amputees. He and his sister Bianca, an actress,  are counselors at the annual Paddy Rosebach youth camp, a summer gathering for 10- to 17-year-old amputees, which was held this year in Clarksville, Ohio.

"I try to get them to look at their goals and to focus on those and to make up their minds, make the same choices I did, that you are going to get there no matter what, and try to put the other stuff aside."

And he told me that he in turn had found the young amputees a huge inspiration as he prepared for Beijing.

The triathlon took place around (and in) the Ming Tombs Reservoir at the foot of the mountains that rise to the north of Beijing. It had been the triathlon venue during the 2008 Olympics.

Ian Williams / NBC News

Andre Kajlich snaps a photo with a fan on China's Great Wall of China.

There were nine contestants in Kajlich's category. "It's going to take a special effort from me," he said.

The first part of the race was a half-mile swim that left him in fourth place, followed by a quick change to his hand bike, where he made up a further place over the twelve mile course. The final three miles were in racing wheelchairs, where Kajlich clawed back another place - finishing second. It was a silver medal for the paratriathlon rookie.

His smile after the race was broader than ever: "How about that? Dude, I was just knocking them down."

A celeb on the Great Wall
On his last day in Beijing we traveled with Kajlich to the Great Wall of China, where he was determined to climb amid the holiday crowds along some of the steep sections that are tough enough at the best of times.

But it didn't surprise me by then. This is one very determined young man, and he became an instant celebrity. At one point, people were lining up to shake his hand and have their photographs taken with him.

Ian Williams / NBC News

The Great Wall of China was packed with tourists the day Andre Kajlich visited.

There is a tendency in China for people to stare at those who are different. Kajlich was wearing shorts, his prosthetic legs clearly showing. I asked him whether all the attention bothered him. Not at all, he said.

"They're nice about it. They're not poking fun at me or anything,” he said.

Then came another request for a photo. "Send me a copy," he said. "Maybe one day I'll see you in Seattle."

At this point I was getting a bit worried about how far we'd come and suggested we make our way back. I was afraid he might be getting tired, but he wasn't through yet.

"One of the reason I made up my mind to use the prosthetics was to get around in places like this," he said.

We did take a break though, because by then I was the one wanting to pause for breath. I asked him what he planned next. Maybe skiing, maybe bobsledding, he said. "There are so many things I'd like to get out there and try and do. I'll do them. I'll figure a way."

As if to stress that point, he'd gone on after Beijing to Kona, Hawaii to compete in the Ironman World Championships, where he beat his own time goals, and came second in his division.

"I've made it through my first Ironman," he told me in an e-mail. "And did pretty well."

And having spent some time with Kajlich I wouldn't have expected anything less.

BEIJING – Luo Yonghao has a message for foreign companies selling products in China: offer good customer support or the hammers are coming out. 

Sledgehammers to be exact.

From the always interesting blog, China Hush, comes this story about Luo, a 47-year-old founder of an English language school and the frequently shutdown, Bullog.cn blogging site.

Luo had a simple enough problem: Some months ago his refrigerator door had broken and just wouldn’t stay shut. His annoyance was compounded by the fact that the fridge was manufactured by Siemens, a global brand with a strong tradition for quality and design. 

So Luo contacted his local Siemen’s customer service center in Beijing and described the problem with the fridge he had purchased three years ago – incidentally, his washing machine bought at the same time had also broken and required repair. However, after much back-and-forth, Siemens denied any issues with the design or assembly of Luo’s refrigerator and refused to replace the faulty product for free.

Ultimately, Luo would file several complaints with Siemens which the company continually dismissed.

That was enough for the blogger, who took to his micro blog on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo, and began to detail his frustrations with Siemen’s handling of the matter.

Having built a following of over 1.2 million users on Weibo, thanks to his popular laid-back and often amusing English language classes which are broadcast online, Luo’s complaints were quickly disseminated throughout the Chinese web sphere and quickly churned up a slew of other Siemen’s fridge owners with the exact same handle issue.

Dubbed “refrigerator gate” on Weibo, the discussion released a groundswell of frustration over Siemen’s public non-handling of the issue, all of which came to a head this past Sunday when Luo organized a group of affected fridge owners outside of Siemen’s headquarters in Beijing and angrily took sledgehammers to three of the broken refrigerators.

Holding signs that said, “[We] gently demand that Siemens acknowledges and solves the problem,” the group submitted a letter to Siemen’s urging the company to acknowledge the technical issue and to improve its customer service in China.

Siemens for their part accepted the letter from the protestors, but also called police in to deal with them. The company later issued their own letter that did not detail any plans for compensation, but noted that production of the said refrigerators had been outsourced to a third-party manufacturer in China.

‘It’s unfair for Chinese customers’
The bad public relations from this incident harkens back to the great Toyota recall of 2009-10, in which millions of the company’s cars were recalled globally. However, Chinese customers were outraged when reports of Toyota’s speed and considerateness towards buyers in regions like the U.S. and Europe did not match their own experience on the mainland, where 75,000 vehicles were affected.

As one local news report about the China recall notes, Toyota employees in the U.S. were required to either personally remove affected cars or pay the travel expenses for those customers returning the cars themselves. Replacement cars were also supposed to be offered for free 

In China though, affected car owners were required at the time to drive the cars to dealers themselves and were offered no compensation. Replacement cars were only provided to those who had cars that could not be fixed quickly, an additional problem that was compounded by a shortage of required parts.

The apparent inequality generated a groundswell of angry sentiment among Chinese consumers, who had already dealt with six previous recalls the year before on Toyota cars sold in China that affected nearly 1 million vehicles.

"The way Toyota has treated Chinese customers is different from how it conducted itself in the U.S.," said Zheng Yumin, head of the Zhejiang provincial industry and commerce administration at the time.

"It's unfair for Chinese customers.”

More fridge smashing to come?
These incidents reflect the upward economic mobility of China’s new consumers and their increasing expectation for products and customer service of a high standard, qualities that are perceived to be mainstays in the West.    

A recent post by the head of consulting firm, McKinsey & Company’s, China offices noted the rising importance of customer service for Chinese consumers. Polling shows that among China’s luxury consumers, the expectation of quality customer service had risen from 17 percent to 30 percent in 2010 and that two out of three consumers said they were disappointed with the poor service they received in China.

Similarly, an Economist Intelligence Unit study of customer service found that despite improved numbers over the years, China had Asia’s least satisfied consumers, with 63 percent of consumers saying they would immediately switch brands if they receive poor customer service from a company whose product they bought. 

All of which must worry companies like Siemens, who are still well-regarded in China but now must deal with the unexpected blow that Luo and his online fight have dealt.  

For his part, Luo hopes that their complaints are dealt with promptly by Siemens. However, should he be ignored again, Luo has already warned that more fridge smashings will follow.

“If Siemens won’t fix this, I’ll rent a big space in [popular Beijing art district] 798 and hand out free hammers,” wrote Luo on his Weibo account before continuing, “then more victims can come and smash their refrigerators up.” 

Courtesy of Xiao Baiyou

Xiao Baiyou, the self-proclaimed "Wolf Daddy" with his four children.

BEIJING – Just as the “Tiger Mom” controversy started simmering down in China, the “Wolf Daddy,” a self-proclaimed expert on strict parenting, is sparking a new round of fervent discussion on child-raising methodologies among anxious Chinese parents.

The “Wolf Daddy” is actually Xiao Baiyou, a 47-year-old Chinese businessman who deals in real estate and luxury goods. This past June, he published a book on parenting that featured an eye-catching photo on the cover of a graduation cap with a wooden ruler underneath, a device commonly used by old-time Chinese teachers and parents to spank their children when they misbehaved.

The message was clear and straightforward: Children need to be disciplined, ruthlessly. His favored method is the rattan cane, which his own mother used on him.

Strict rules
Reasons for spanking vary from sneaking visits with friends to lying to diminishing academic achievement. In the book, Xiao recounts a time when Xiao Jun, his eldest daughter, could not complete a new song on her piano. Her calf was spanked 10 times while others watched, including her mom, who applied medicine on her bloody bruises afterwards.

Xiao lays out his spanking instructions in the book:
Before the kids go to junior high school, spank them every time they make mistakes, but greatly reduce the frequency after junior high since the children form their own personalities by that age;
The spanking tool is confined to the rattan cane only, which causes minor bruises;
Only hands and calves are spanked, other body parts are spared;
Mistakes are pointed out every time before the whack so children know why they are punished;
Sisters and brothers must watch when one of them is smacked so they learn;
The punished one has to count the number of spanking during each admonishment;
The punished one cannot try to avoid the punishment, otherwise he/she gets more.

Unlike many of his fellow citizens who are only allowed to have one child, Xiao has four children. Two of them were born in Hong Kong and two in the U.S., following a new trend in which middle-class Chinese citizens have children overseas to avoid the one-child family planning policy. Xiao originally had hoped for six children, but stopped at four when his company tumbled into financial problems.

“I persist on my own belief that has never changed: I use the oldest, the most traditional methods to educate my children,” writes Xiao in his 200-plus-page book.

Xiao’s list of banned activities is no shorter than those of the “Tiger Mom,” Amy Chua:

No TV, except a limited amount of news and cartoons (teen soap opera dramas are absolutely prohibited);
No unmonitored Internet surfing;
No Coca-Cola (but tea is allowed);
No opening the refrigerator (so no unscheduled snacks);
No air-conditioning, to train the spirit of tenacity (ouch, summer in Guangzhou is brutally humid and hot);
No visiting friends unless a written application is filled out, providing information on the friend’s academic grades and their parents’ names and phone numbers;
No pocket money at all;
And written self-criticism when mistakes are made.

Social life is severely controlled by the Wolf Father. Traveling is strictly monitored in case “bad influences” affect the kids’ academic grades. Once, when Xiao Baiyou sensed his son’s classmates were “bad boys” and the school didn’t respond to his request to separate them, Xiao made a quick decision to move and forbad his son to contact any of his former classmates. Dating is utterly out of the question, but Xiao told NBC News in a recent phone interview that he told his kids once they were enrolled at Peking University to “go find your true love now!”

Extra curriculum activities are considered frivolous. Xiao forced his son to give up basketball because it was taking up too much time.

Outraged reaction  
Xiao got widespread attention after he registered with China’s Twitter-like micro blogging site Weibo under the name of “China Wolf Father” three months ago.

The Weibo account, with its short introduction, says “one scolding every day sends your children to Peking University,” one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China, and it quickly attracted over 2,400 followers. His book is called, “Therefore, Peking University Brothers and Sisters,” and it has sold over 20,000 copies. If you search “Wolf Daddy” on China’s local search engine Baidu, you get over 1 million results.

But the attention he’s gotten doesn’t mean every Chinese parent believes his is the best parenting approach. In a recent online chat with chinanews.com, many readers left disapproving or even angry comments. One reader called “og_wfny” said, “you are building your vanity on your children’s pain.”

Shi Shusi, an editor at a national newspaper “Worker’s Daily,” commented: “Wolf daddy can only train wolf cubs. This story has nothing to do with human beings.”

Xiao argues that all those critical voices are from the people who either do not have parenting experience or do not truly understand him. He’s extremely proud of his three children who got into Peking University, but denies that was his ultimate goal (the fourth is still in high school).

“This is only a goal during their study times, a finishing point of their high school, but a beginning to new life. Their ultimate goal is to bring glory to my family, and I believe they will achieve that goal by being decent, capable, healthy and honest people,” Xiao told NBC News.

Without a doubt, Xiao’s four children are impressive: the son is a chess pro and loves Chinese ink painting, the eldest daughter is good at writing and plays piano, the second daughter is a calligraphy master and the third daughter is a professional guzheng (a traditional 21-stringed musical instrument) player.

NBC News tried to interview Xiao’s children but was told they do not wish to be disturbed while they are focusing on their college studies.

Xiao Yao, the son, said in the book that he believes he and his sisters have “much stronger self-control” than other children thanks to their father’s strict parenting. 

But the boy also wrote about his self-pity in another article included in the book: “Although daddy’s parenting gave us many traits other children don’t have, there are regrets in my childhood. I remember one summer some relatives came to visit and we children jumped and laughed on the bed, I was so happy. This only happened once in my childhood and it will never happen again. That was the only moment I thought childhood could actually be worry-free! I wish I had a few more such moments!”

When asked if he ever has any regrets in his parenting, Xiao Baiyou said “no” without any hesitation. But he said he regrets not buying his wife a ring or flowers after they got married. He says his wife, who he calls “the queen” in the family, never used make-up after she married Xiao, since every penny was spent on their children’s education, like expensive piano classes.

Xiao does has one question that he wishes could reach the president of the United States: “Dear Mr. Obama, I’m really curious to know, were you spanked when you were a child?”

Eric Baculinao/ NBC News

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei answers questions during a Live Chat with msnbc.com readers on Nov. 22.

BEIJING – Many readers wrote in after our chat with artist/activist Ai Weiwei with more questions about the structure of the event and how it worked. I’ll do my best to answer those questions and to give a little more background about what went on inside Ai’s house.

Q. How was Ai Weiwei allowed to do this chat if he’s under house arrest?
A: Ai Weiwei is not under house arrest; he is allowed to travel freely in Beijing, but is unable to leave the city without permission from the government. He is also free to bring guests and co-workers to his Beijing studio, which was the site of the live chat and has been a hive of activity the last few times we’ve come to visit him there.

As for why he was able to do this chat, Ai perhaps said it best during the live chat: “I’m not talking to press, I’m talking to people.” 

Q: What were the Chinese saying about the chat?
A: None of the Chinese state media organizations appeared to report on the live chat. Ai’s name has been blocked on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo, so there was no obvious discussion of the live chat on there either.

Q. Why didn’t my question for Ai show up on the chat screen? Did he read my question?
A: Thousands of people from all over the world left questions for Ai to answer – he managed to get through 16 in a little over an hour. Had we put all the comments up inside the main chat box it would have been difficult for many of our readers to find Ai’s answers among all the questions, comments and criticisms – yes, there was a great deal of the latter in both English and Chinese – left by readers.

While I served as moderator of the event, controlling what showed up on the chat screen and what didn’t, Ai ultimately selected the questions he wished to answer. There were several reasons for this, but it was primarily for us a question of safety for Ai.

While he is free to talk to the public, the reality is that he is still faces serious legal charges for tax evasion and his colleagues are under investigation for pornography. Certain questions that pried deeper into those matters could potentially have brought him further legal trouble from China’s court system.

Similarly, questions that touched on big sensitive subjects like Tiananmen Square, Tibet and Taiwan – the “Three T’s” as they are known among the journalist community here – were likely avoided by Ai as they have already been discussed so much previously and would only have inflamed what is an already tenuous relationship with the Communist government.

Ai initially was happy to listen to the questions read to him as they came in, but as readers began to flood the chat with questions and comments, he increasingly began to spend much of the time standing beside me reading the live feed and sometimes answering questions under his breath as my colleague gamely tried to keep up with him on the keyboard.

In fact, his answer, “I’m not talking to press, I’m talking to people,” came as we were preparing another one of his answers, so we had to track back through the trove of questions to find the one he had answered off the cuff.   

Andy Wong / AP

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei opens his jacket to reveal a shirt bearing his portrait as he walks into the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau on Nov. 16, 2011. Click on the photo to see a complete slideshow of photos.

Q. Did Ai Weiwei really call the Occupy Wall Street movement “primitive” and “hopeless?”

A: This answer was slightly taken out of context by some commentators both in the chat and later in media reports on the event. His answer to a question about his impressions of the Occupy Wall Street movement is below:

9:27  Ai Weiwei:
First I didn’t pay enough attention, but as much as I have to say, I can certainly recognize the need to express the feeling of the people who have suffered from this Walstreet power, that kind of distrust, and misconduct from the Walstreet in many respects. But as a movement it’s a still in a very primitive form, and you can see the kind of hopeless struggle because it seems to have no structure to get the message across, or even let people know what kind of message that is. Or it has become lacking of content or successfully express its own purposes during the development. It’s lack of means to really create changes.

Ai’s intent here was not to call out the entire movement out as hopeless, but to note that from his view, Occupy Wall Street is still in its nascent stages and that it needs structure and cohesiveness to truly become an effective vehicle for meaningful social change.

As Ai noted later, coverage of Occupy Wall Street in the local Chinese media has been stilted. While coverage of Americans camping out to protest Wall Street excess initially drew gleeful editorials from some nationalistic newspapers here in China, censors tempered coverage when officials saw the movement spread to Asia, sparking concern that similar events could be staged on the mainland as well. With largely only official Chinese state media reports and scattered Western sources available, most citizens here are limited in their exposure to coverage of Occupy Wall Street.

As for Ai himself, with so much already going on in his life this year, it’s understandable that he hasn’t made the Occupy Wall Street movement a bigger priority in his life right now.

However, that isn’t to say that he doesn’t empathize with the general sentiment. As he said in his response to an angry reader comment about his answer above: “If I was in N.Y., I’d be a part of it [Occupy Wall Street].”

Q. What was up with the cats?
A: One of the first things you notice when you go to Ai’s studio is how animal friendly the place is. Cats lazily sun themselves out in the courtyard, stalk employees and visitors alike and generally roam freely. Joining them is a rotund cocker spaniel named Daniel who often holds court near Ai’s feet clad in an orange knit sweater.

The night of the live chat was very windy in Beijing and animals and humans alike were scurrying throughout the courtyard to escape the biting cold. Those cats that managed to get in during the live chat generally observed quietly from a distance, but a few of the more adventurous ones decided this was a fine time to curl into laps, walk over laptops and look gamely at the tangerines Ai was eating throughout the talk.

Ai had just finished giving an answer to a question and was busy reading through the live feed of questions when we heard a rattle and then the door suddenly flung wide open followed by two cats and a flurry of leaves flying in.

The howl of the wind and the sudden slam of the door gave some of us quite a start, since for half a second we weren’t sure if it was the Beijing police bringing an unceremonious end to the live chat.

But Ai didn’t bat an eye, “That cat is the smart one, he figured the door out a while ago.”

The cat’s ingenuity and contribution to the chat deserved a mention, but definitely better grammar. Rest assured readers, the bear/bare mistake was embarrassedly noticed by me the moment I hit enter. I promise it won’t happen again.

Q. Will Ai do another one of these live chats again soon?
A: Someone close to Ai once described him as a “social media junkie.” During this live chat, Ai seemed energized by the waves of questions readers sent him and eager to tackle them as best he could.

We here at Behind the Wall thank you for the great questions and comments you sent yesterday and hope that we can make this happen again soon.

Click here to read the complete chat

File photo / AP

Ai Weiwei file photo in Beijing, Nov. 17, 2010.

BEIJING – Since the 1970s, Ai Weiwei has been at the forefront of China’s experimental art scene which has blossomed over the years alongside the country’s economic standing. The 54-year-old’s work on the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing, as well as high profile exhibits like the October 2010 installation project, Sunflower Seeds, in which Ai commissioned 100 million handcrafted porcelain “seeds” that were then poured into a room at the Tate Modern Gallery in London, have captivated audiences worldwide.

Such high-profile projects have gained Ai international acclaim in the artistic world, but it has been his transformation into social activist and outspoken critic of China’s authoritarian regime that has turned him into a global icon.

This year, Ai has been a fixture in the news as he diligently worked to document the flurry of arrests of Chinese activists, lawyers and writers by the government following the wave of popular uprisings that erupted throughout the Middle East. Ai himself was detained in April 2011 and was held without formal charge by Chinese security for 81 days. He was released following what the government claims was a confession by Ai to charges of tax evasion.  

Eric Baculinao / NBC News

Ai Weiwei answers reader questions during the Live Chat in his Beijing studio with NBC's Ed Flanagan on Tuesday.

Ai Weiwei now finds himself fighting legal charges that include tax evasion and even pornography. In both cases, Ai’s supporters in China have rallied to his side by lending $1.4 million to the artist to pay a legal guarantee that will allow him to contest the tax charges and posting their own “pornographic” pictures online in protest. (See a slideshow of Ai Weiwei's art).

Speaking recently about the charges, Ai told reporters, “We must follow the legal procedure. As any individual citizen, my innocence is linked with the country’s innocence.”

Ai Weiwei answered reader questions earlier today. Both the questions and answers were provocative and interesting. Click on the link below to replay the chat.  

YINGJING, SICHUAN—The panda was always one of my favorite animals.

Until I found myself slipping and sliding down a steep muddy mountain slope in southwestern Sichuan, looking for panda poop.

To be precise, someone else was searching. 

My colleagues and I were just attempting to keep up with him on what was easily one of the more physically grueling NBC News assignments we’d all been on in years.

Li Guiren, a fleet-footed 36-year old Sichuan native who works at the Chinese Forestry Department, was hiking through the mud, following coordinates on his bright yellow GPS device.  He’s one of 70 “trackers” working in Sichuan to count pandas in the wild—which they do by collecting panda droppings.  (More on that in a moment.)

China kicked off its panda census last month.  It’s the fourth one since the 1970s, when they instituted the practice to keep tabs on the worldwide panda bear count every 10 years.

The wild panda is only found in China, across parts of three provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi, covering 5,400 square miles.  Or the size of Connecticut.

The bears like being high up, usually somewhere between 4,000 and 11,500 square feet above sea level in mountain forests with a damp climate.

The last census revealed only 1,596 wild pandas existed with 290 pandas in captivity around the world.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Li Guiren takes notes on the geography on a Sichuan mountain.

“About 70 to 80 percent [of all the pandas in the world] live in Sichuan,” said Huang Zhi of the Bifengxia Panda Breeding Center in Ya’an, Sichuan.  “Sichuan also has the highest number of wild pandas.”

Trackers in the field
Sichuan is also where the two-year panda census project has launched.  Smaller teams in Gansu and Shaanxi will begin working in the field next year.

Early in the morning, a group of twenty men suited up in wet-weather clothes and thin boots.  They reviewed their cartographic materials and compared notes one last time before setting off.  Each one carried the same bright yellow GPS device Li was toting.

Li, who took part in the last panda census, said new technology has had a huge impact on their work.  “We can get a lot more done more quickly,” he said, with the GPS device shaving the amount of time in the field down by about 30 percent.

Each tracker is assigned a near-vertical tract of land to explore.  On average, they cover 1.2 to 1.5 square miles a day, looking for panda droppings.  (A typical male panda roams in a territory about 3.3 square miles whereas a female confines herself to 1.8 square miles.)  Li found a pile that looked like it had been produced within the past three days, which he bagged and brought back to base camp for analysis.

“We take a sample for DNA testing,” he said as he prepared the panda waste.  “The DNA test demands fresh feces not more than four days old.  This is very fresh.”

But DNA testing isn’t foolproof so Li and his colleagues also measured the undigested bamboo scraps to help identify the pandas individually.  “We measure the width of the teeth marks,” he explained.  Each bear has an individual bite with differing teeth sizes.

Habitat challenges
While in the panda’s natural habitat, the research teams also take detailed notes of the conditions and its geology. 

“What people normally care about is the number of the pandas,” said Gu Xiaodong, a scientist with the Sichuan branch of the Wildlife Survey Conservation and Management in the Forestry Department.  “We care more about the quality of their habitat.”

With the data the trackers are collecting, the scientists will be able to analyze changes to the habitat and "draw up more effective conservation policies," continued Gu.  “For example, last time we found pandas in locations between the reserves we had established,” he said.  “So we had to set up more reserves to protect these pandas.”

Adrienne Mong

Li Guiren and other researchers measure undigested bamboo in the panda droppings to help identify each animal.

Researchers also hope to have more detailed information about the impact of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which measured 7.9 (by the U.S. Geological Survey) and devastated the famed Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center, one of the earliest research bases set up by the Chinese government in the early 1980s. 

But humans remain the biggest threat to the survival of wild pandas.

With more than 80 million people, Sichuan is one of China’s more densely populated provinces.  In recent years, it has seen large inflows of government investment and is rapidly urbanizing.  Scientists have cited roads and high-speed railways as a major hazard encroaching on the panda’s natural habitat in the mountains.

But mining is also a problem.  The day we trudged up the mountain with Li and Gu, we passed a couple of mines—one of them lead, whose run-off cast an unhealthy gray tinge to the river.  Loud explosions went off even during our hike, unsettling us as much as the pandas.

“The place where we are doing research now, it’s always been a traffic-intensive area with a lot of human activity,” said Gu.  “The pandas here probably choose to go higher.”

But they still sometimes descend into human territory, especially if it means getting something to eat other than bamboo plants. While the giant panda's diet consists mostly of bamboo, they do have the digestive system of carnivores. 

Gu confirmed that local farmers have regularly complained about pandas raiding their livestock.  “One farmer has his goats eaten by pandas every year,” recalled Gu, who said the Forestry Department offers compensation in such instances.

Mating challenges
Mating habits are also a challenge, particularly for pandas in captivity.

Female pandas are only in heat for three days a year.  The window for conceiving is very narrow—from 12 to 24 hours during those 72 hours.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

The panda's natural habitat is a rugged landscape, but it's also being encroached by China's westward development.

Pandas in the wild don’t generally have a problem reproducing, said Huang from the breeding center.  But those in captivity usually need a bit of help—whether through artificial insemination or even the famed panda porn method.

Despite the success in breeding the cuddly animals in captivity, there’s been none so far in re-introducing fully domesticated pandas into the wild.

Nonetheless, researchers say they think breeding programs and conservation efforts have worked to keep the panda from advancing any closer to extinction.

“We really hope once the census is done, we’ll find more pandas than we found in the last census,” said Li.  “That will mean what we’ve been doing has made progress.”

And if the scientists are right, that will make at least one civilian very happy.

A man by the name of An Yanshi in Sichuan is collecting panda poop by the bucket-loads to make tea—with curative properties.

“Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 percent of everything they eat,” An has been quoted as saying.  “That means their excrement is rich in fibres and nutrients.”

He plans to market the tea as the world’s most expensive—at $36,000 a poop.  A pop.  A pound.

BEIJING – When news emerged that a vehicle carrying 64 people but designed for only nine had collided with a truck on Wednesday morning in the northwestern province of Gansu, it was hard not to wonder, "How in the world did they fit all those passengers into a tiny vehicle??"

Well, wonder no more.  Apparently, it is common practice in the countryside.  This video – which Ed Flanagan posted two months ago – is worth putting up again as it shows just how they do it in rural China.

In the video, 66 really cute children are jammed into a van that normally only holds six.  

Fortunately, their vehicle gets stopped by police, who proceed to unload the van in the middle of traffic.  The children are then bundled into police vans in much smaller groups and driven home.  In one scene, towards the end, a policeman looks as though he's berating a parent for allowing the child to travel in such unsafe conditions.

Despite the video, Wednesday's accident was no laughing matter.  The collision killed 18 children and two adults on board.  Most of the students were only 5 or 6 years old.

The accident has triggered an outcry among many ordinary Chinese, who have criticized the government for failing to provide better care for students in the countryside.  Parents of Wednesday's victims were quoted in local media as saying they'd worried about safety every time their children boarded the makeshift school bus, but that they had no choice if they wanted to send them to school.

BEIJING — At least 18 kindergarten kids and two adults were killed Wednesday when a school bus with just nine seats but crammed with 64 people crashed on its way to class in western China, state media reported.

Authorities blamed overloading for the accident in which the bus collided head-on with a truck in China's Gansu province, Xinhua News Agency said.

News of the crash ignited public anger across China, highlighting an underfunded education system that especially shortchanges students in remote areas.

Watch the video above and read more from the Associated Press here.

BEIJING – As the deadline approaches for paying a whopping tax bill of $2.4 million, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has collected nearly half that amount from supporters across China.

“I’m very surprised,” said the 54-year old Ai in his studio in northeastern Beijing.  “I never really [wanted] people to donate anything to us.”

Last Tuesday, the authorities presented the bill to his company, known as Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, and issued a deadline of November 15.  Fake, which is registered in the name of Ai’s wife, manages the artist’s affairs.  The government is seeking the back taxes and fines based on tax evasion charges they made earlier this year against Ai during his 81-day detention in an undisclosed location.

Ai immediately turned to his apparent favorite medium of expression these days, the Internet, to solicit donations from followers. 

An unorthodox way of fundraising
While the artist said he has the means to find the money himself to pay the tax bill, he wanted to bring attention to how the government is treating him.  Ai’s family and supporters have maintained that the tax evasion charges come as retaliation for his constant attacks on the Chinese central government.

Ai has said he considers the donations a “loan” and intends to pay everyone back.  

The donations have come in many shapes and sizes.  Roughly 25,000 people have sent in donations by Alipay (a Chinese version of PayPal), money orders, and cash–wrapped around fruit or folded as paper planes thrown over the garden wall into his compound.

Eric Baculinao

Ai Weiwei gives journalists the latest tally of donations that have been streaming in since last week.

“Society should be more tolerant,” said Zhao Yangping, a retired engineer living in Beijing.  We found her leaving the studio, where she had just donated some money on behalf of relatives from overseas who wanted to show their support for Ai.  “Why should the government be so nervous?  He deserves more freedom.  The government is too harsh on him, too sensitive.”

The government maintains otherwise.

In the state-run newspaper, The Global Times, an editorial questioned whether Ai’s unorthodox response was legal, “Since he's borrowing from the public, it at least looks like illegal fund-raising.”

It also looks like people – even if still a small fraction given the size of China's population – are taking a stand in the battle between Ai and the government.  "It is obviously…about that,” Ai said.  “It’s about how people vote with very [limited] possibilities….  We use our money to vote.  It’s our ticket.”

Collateral damage?
Despite initial reports stating that he was unsure yet about whether to pay the fine and back taxes, Ai confirmed to NBC News he would do so by next Tuesday.

“I think we have to,” he said.  “If you don’t pay, then you violate another law….  And it’s not me now, they are not aiming at me.  The tax company said it’s not you.  It’s the company.  In the company, there are several people [who are] innocent.”

Nonetheless, innocent people are affected by Ai’s activism.

On the day NBC News visited Ai, a young woman was waiting to confer with him about a predicament.

Wu Hongfei, a writer-journalist whose main passion she says is singing for her rock band, Happy Avenue, had just learned a concert for a birthday party this weekend had been cancelled.

“The authorities told Yugong Yishan [a public concert venue] that they cannot hold the performance,” she said.  Managers at the club were not given any explanation, according to Wu, but she reckoned it had to do with their decision to give out sunflower seeds to ticket buyers as “a special birthday gift” from Wu to her audience.

Harmless or odd as it might seem, the gesture could be interpreted by authorities as an overt show of support for Ai. 

“Sunflower Seeds” is the name of a major installation Ai mounted late last year at the Tate Modern, a prestigious museum in London.  It was still on display in April, when the artist was detained in Beijing, and drew even more widespread attention as a result of his arrest.

Wu has already had one other concert shut down by local officials—again no reason was given although she suspects it’s because of her association with Ai.

“This is irrational.  We’re not even that close friends.  I don’t bother the government.  I don’t even understand politics,” she said.  “If I can’t perform, then what can I do?  I really love my band.”

Read more reports in Behind the Wall on Ai Weiwei

The show goes on in New York, minus detained Chinse artist

SLIDESHOW of Ai Weiwei's work

EN ROUTE BACK TO BEIJING -- We like to lament the state of Chinese television.  It's pretty awful.

But then there's Hunan TV.  With its hit reality TV shows, it's possibly the nation's most popular broadcaster and reaches millions of viewers.

And just based on this one video, one can see why.

A bunch of Chinese senior citizens doing a cover of "Bad Romance."  Yes, the one by Lady Gaga.

Some things need no words.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

Courtesy Hammons Products Company

The American black walnut making waves in China.

BEIJING – In the small U.S. town of Stockton, Missouri, Brian Hammons believes he and his family have struck black gold – of the edible kind.

Brian and his family run Hammons Products Company, a purveyor of black walnuts – known by some aficionados as “the aristocrat of American nuts.”  The company has been in the business of harvesting the wild nut for more than 60 years. Native to the United States, the black walnut is known for its rich nutty flavor and is commonly used for baking and making ice cream.

“It’s a great ingredient to mix with things like fruits, chocolate and cookies….  One of my favorites is chocolate walnut brownie cheesecake,” said Hammons, who spoke to NBC News last week while visiting Beijing with a trade delegation. 

And if all goes according to plan, their tasty product will not just be gracing American kitchens but supermarkets all over China – potentially creating badly needed jobs back home.

Around 65 percent of the annual wild harvest in America – most black walnuts are not planted in traditional orchards but foraged wildly – come from Missouri. And the largest walnut processing plant is operated by none other than Hammons Products Company.

Even so, Hammons has been looking overseas for future growth opportunities. 

“Certainly a few years ago we recognized that China was an area that was more open to American products, and more companies were looking to China for trade,” said Hammons, who went to Shanghai three years ago to attend a food show at which the state of Missouri was hosting a booth.

“After 2008, we did some consumer surveys to see if the Chinese liked black walnuts,” he said.  “Some people really liked the flavors, others didn’t. But that’s OK, we have a niche product.”

In fact, Hammons would simply be nuts not to try to crack into the Chinese processed food market. 

In 2009, China bought 83 million pounds of American-grown pecans, surpassing all of the U.S. exports of pecans to the rest of the world during the same year.  And in 2010, China became the top foreign buyer of American almonds. In all, China purchased $737 million in tree nuts from the U.S. in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.   

Tree nut sales are just one small indicator of a growing trend in America’s trade relationship with China. With an estimated 300 million-strong middle class in China developing new and more Western-centric eating habits, U.S. companies seem poised to grow their 25 percent market share of what China alone purchased in 2010: $71 billion worth of agricultural imports.

It’s also good business for China, which is dealing with the worst sustained food price inflation in recent memory. In a country where the average household spends 20 percent of income on food, inflation on foodstuffs was running at an astounding 10.3 percent in January 2011 compared with 3.7 the year before. As a result, the Chinese government has turned to food imports from abroad as an effective tool to curb inflationary trends at home.

All of this makes for an ideal time to make the plunge into China. Hammons has enlisted the help of his son, David, to head up strategy as the company’s international marketing director.

“The flavor is unique. I’ve heard a wide assortment of people who’ve compared the taste of black walnuts to wine to grapefruit to truffles. Me?  I say it tastes like a black walnut,” said David, who is convinced Chinese consumers will grow to love the utility of the nut.

Courtesy Hammons Products Company

Brian Hammons oversees black walnut inspectors back in Missouri.

“Because it has such a rich palate, you’ll see a lot of combinations with chocolate and other rich flavors that make black walnuts a very upscale gourmet item that … can be a good complementary item to Chinese cuisine.”

Hammons said he hopes to sell half a million pounds of black walnuts to China during their first year of exporting – calling that a “nice volume.”

Niche it may be, but the numbers in the black walnut business would be huge not just for the Hammons, who rang up $11 million in sales in the U.S. and China last year, but also for his community in Missouri.

More than 190 independent buying/collecting stations are already contracted out by Hammons to forage the nut – most of which Brian says employ at least 100 employees. His Stockton processing plant currently employs 85 people.

Increased Chinese demand for the nut would mean increased planting and foraging of black walnuts and more jobs in Cedar County, where Stockton is located. The agricultural community of fewer than 14,000 people currently has an unemployment rate around the national average of 9 percent.

“We’re right now discussing our buying season back home, because we’re buying black walnuts now,” said David. “If we in the future had big business in China, we could extend that buying season, go to buying in more places and that means more money in the local economy and more people we have to hire to crack those nuts.”

‘Missourians feed and clothe the world’
The Hammons’ black walnut business is just one small cog in a larger economic export engine Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon envisions his state evolving into in the near future. Like many states, Missouri state leaders realized that job creation goes hand in hand with boosting exports.

In 2010, Missouri exported $987.4 million worth of goods to China. Through August 2011, Missouri exports totaled nearly $773 million, a year-on-year increase of 25 percent from the same period last year.

But those figures are expected to change dramatically.

Just this past week, Nixon and a delegation of more than 60 Missouri business and agricultural leaders signed a $4.4 billion trade deal with China that they expect will see the state’s exports surge to the mainland over the next three years.

The agreement reflects an ongoing upward trend:  From 2000 to 2010, Missouri exports to China grew 1,199 percent, making it the state’s third-biggest trade partner, after Canada and Mexico. 

“Missouri farmers, growers and producers feed, fuel and clothe the world,” Nixon said last week at a luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. “And Missouri makes and grows what the Chinese need.” 

While the trade agreement reportedly provides for $3.2 billion in manufacturing exports to China, Nixon emphasized that the deal was designed to highlight the agricultural products the state could supply China. “This agreement recognizes the important role Missouri agriculture plays in our export growth,” said Nixon.  “And it will open new doors for Missouri’s agricultural businesses to sell their goods to China.”

‘Missourians know how to grow things’
Indeed, China could benefit massively from the agricultural expertise. Missouri-based biotech firms like Monsanto and Novus International offer technical advancements in genetically engineered crops that the Chinese government, obsessed with food supply self-sufficiency, has not failed to notice.

China knows that rising local incomes and increased demand will only exacerbate existing food supply problems and that genetically modified foods is one possible solution. To that end, Chinese state-owned enterprise Sinochem and Monsanto have been in talks to further broaden ties and cooperation in the seed business; since 2001, the two have collaborated on a hybrid corn project.

Equally appealing is Missouri’s position as an innovation hub for the animal health industry – so much so the U.S. federal government even bases its Animal Health Association in Missouri. 

Chinese farmers who are slowly transitioning from backyard farms to U.S.-model large-scale farms have found themselves consumed with the issue of how keep their animals healthy and disease-free.

Just how much the Chinese have struggled with this and maintaining a clean, healthy supply is evident in surging imports of pork.

Pork exports from the United States to China have gone up six fold from January through July of this year to meet ravenous demand for the other white meat.  

However, those good times might be slowing. A U.S. Department of Agriculture report shows China’s production is forecast to recover by 4 percent next year, helped in part by healthy government subsidies and a push towards expanding small-scale operations.

Nevertheless, as long as China remains committed to food self-sufficiency, states like Missouri stand to reap the financial reward by providing the medical and animal-rearing expertise required to keep modern farms stable, growing, and free of disease.

Or as one Missourian in the delegation put it, “We have over 100,000 farms and hundreds of companies working in the agricultural industry… Trust me, Missourians know how to grow things.”

Finding the ‘strike zone’
However, it’s important to note that Missouri’s relationship with China has not always proven so fruitful.

As the Economic Policy Institute noted in a report on the consequences of trade with China, the state has lost nearly 40,000 jobs to the mainland since it entered the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Major Missouri agricultural and pharmaceutical multinationals like Monsanto and Sigma-Aldrich may target China as a potential major growth target, but as long as Chinese regulation prevents major foreign investment in agriculture, that potential may not translate to the major financial windfall hoped for.

Meantime, much of Missouri’s short-term export hopes lie with the small and medium-sized enterprises like the Hammons and their black walnuts. 

That’s just fine with Nixon, who in an interview with NBC News underscored the importance of businesses like Hammons Products Company as part of his vision of Missouri as an export engine.

“Hammons is the leading black walnut organization in the country and a very interesting business model,” said the governor. “They are a good example…We want to sell black walnuts around [China] and plus get more people to plant those trees in Missouri.”

“The bottom line is that those small and medium-sized businesses, we see them as a real strike zone here,” the governor added. “Trips like these open doors for small businesses that otherwise would not be open.”

Click to read more in the series of stories: China and USA: On State Business
Asia carp scourge, no problem: sell them to China
Nevada's gamble in China pays off big
US envoy to China's top priority: jobs back home