TIME's Austin Ramzy recently met with Ai at his Beijing studio for a wide-ranging discussion on subjects that included his 81-day detention last year on suspicion of tax evasion, which was widely seen as retaliation for his public efforts to promote human rights and government accountability in China
What's the latest news in the government's legal case against you?
On June 22, the end date of my one-year period of probation, the police told me, "Your case is closed. You're a free man. We have nothing to charge you with because you behaved very well this year," which, I admit, was...