“Encouraged and empowered by their success in delivering a smooth Olympic games, China’s security apparatus has steadily expanded. The budget for security is more than 50 per cent higher than it was during 2008, the year of the games, and has now even outstripped the budget of the People’s Liberation Army. Against this backdrop, Ai Weiwei is perhaps the party’s biggest scalp. While his protests have become steadily more electric over the past few years, few expected that any action would be taken against him.”