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Chinese Artist Gets Help Paying Huge Tax Bill

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Our last word in business today comes from China. And the word is tax protest. Chinese officials this year intensified their harassment of the outspoken artist Ai Weiwei. They put him in jail for three months, and after he was released, the government slapped him with a huge tax bill of more than $2 million. Now the artist has become the beneficiary of some unusual support. Today, Ai said he's received more than $800,000 in donations to help him pay off that tax bill.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Sometimes those supporters have just wired him the money, but others have been more creative. They have apparently folded money into paper airplanes, tossing them over the gate of his home. They've also wrapped money around fruit and thrown it over that gate. That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.