Despite the fact that he's gaining personal publicity, he is still doing a service, as he, and none of the other activists has the ability to get the attention of Western media, thus shining a greater light on the matter. If he were to remain silent on the matters, it is likely most people outside of China(and many within) would never know of such problems.

Ai Weiwei is, in my opinion, an international art con-man who jumps on every single human misery bandwagon, exploiting genuine sufferers in China for his own self-aggrandisement as an artist.

An example:
On August 12 2009, Ai Weiwei wasted no time twittering to the world that he had been "detained" by Chinese police and in a scuffle "received a punch on the chin" ("Chinese police detain 11 who planned to attend activist's trial", Guardian newspaper, 12th August 2009).

The judge at the trial of the (genuine) dissident - Tan Zuoren - said that Ai and his followers - who had come to the Chengdu region with the intent of attending the trial - had nothing relevant to contribute to the proceedings as they had had nothing at all to do with the events in Chengdu and had simply flown into the province to profit from the publicity. Consequently, they may or may not have been prevented from attending the proceedings (Ai Weiwei offers a photo taken on his mobile phone of himself with Chinese police officers in a lift as evidence).

One month later, however, Ai Weiwei was exhibiting another of his artworks in Germany and suffered a brain haemorrhage. Again, the twitter happy Ai wasted no time in linking his emergency operation to what had now escalated from a punch on the chin to "a severe beating" including "heavy blows to the head" as a result of which he had apparently suffered "persistent headaches" (the worlds press, September 2009 and everafter). Brain Haemorrhages can however be caused by frequent pressurized air travel - especially in older men.

If you google "Ai Weiwei; Shanghai studio to be abolished" you get ten full pages of results devoted solely to Ai's PR output and statement, in which he declares himself to have been singled out as the only artist to have such action taken against him. However, in the sympathetic "Global Times" (based in China) THREE studios were built without permission and TWO are to be demolished including that of artist Din Yi - not known as either a government irritant or genuine activist.

Ai Weiwei did not campaign against the mass demolition of buildings and relocation of their residents in Shanghai for the Expo earlier this year. Neither has he campaigned significantly on behalf of the artists back in his home town of Beijing who are soon to have their studio's demolished to make way for office blocks and factory units. These events clearly don't have the same clout with the international media.

He HAS however, published the names and statements of distressed relatives of dead children and labelled it 'art' - to international critical acclaim. Similarly, a snake-like arrangement of childrens satchels also met with western critical approval.

No wonder he is always so keen to point out how 'popular' he is among the non-artist general public in China. I suspect that there may be at least one or two bereaved relatives rather peeved at his exploitation of their misery in the name of art.

Perhaps someone should send Ai Weiwei a copy of that well known western fairytale "the boy who cried wolf" - it may well turn out to be useful advice.

Neither is he responsible for the design of the Olympic "birds nest" stadium - as is frequently reported in the culture sections of the arts press.

The design process began in 2001 and was all done and dusted by March 2003 when the contract was officially awarded to the birds nest design by Herzog & De Meuron and China Architecture Design & Research Group.

Herzog & De Meuron have a record of bringing in artists as consultants during the construction phase and Ai Weiwei's involvement as such seems to have begun later in 2003, though what his specific input was is anyone's guess.

To be fair to him, he has since tried to distance himself from the project.