Chinese Artist Loses Appeal in Tax Evasion Case BEIJING - Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist who has emerged as one of the government's most nettlesome and high-profile critics, has lost his appeal of a $2.4 million tax evasion case that was widely seen as an effort to dissuade him from his voluble campaign against the ruling Communist Party. In a verdict that surprised no one, the Chaoyang District Court on Friday rejected Mr. Ai's argument that Chinese tax authorities had ignored their own procedures when they raided his home studio last year and then bundled him off for nearly three months of interrogation. Mr. Ai's disappearance, and the details of his solitary confinement, provoked international condemnation. It also failed to silence him. Mr. Ai was appealing a ruling handed down by Beijing tax authorities last November. He said he was disappointed by the decision announced on Friday, but expressed his trademark resolve, saying he would continue to battle against the authorities by filing lawsuits in other courts. The police prevented Mr. Ai from attending the hearing, but they were unable to stop him from speaking with reporters who made their way to his home studio on the outskirts of the capital. "If we don't keep suing them, we've lost our basic responsibility as citizens," he said. The police barred journalists and diplomats from the hearing although a handful of supporters managed to gather outside the courthouse. Only his wife and two lawyers were allowed to attend the brief hearing. A city bus that normally serves the area was ordered to bypass the courthouse. The government's case against Mr. Ai began in April 2011, when the authorities detained him at Beijing International Airport just before he was to board a plane for Hong Kong. He was taken to a secret detention center on the city's outskirts and spent the next 81 days watched round-the-clock by rotating pairs of young soldiers. He was released in June of last year, having lost a sizable portion of his familiar girth. In their public statements, the government claimed that Mr. Ai's design company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development, had evaded 15 million renminbi, or $2.4 million in taxes. Beyond objecting to procedural violations, his lawyers have maintained that Mr. Ai was not liable to prosecution given that his wife, Lu Qing, is the company's legal owner. The lawyers also say they have been unable to review the thousands of pages of financial documents that were seized during the raid. As part of the terms of his bail, Mr. Ai was barred from leaving Beijing for a year. He was also told not to resume his prodigious use of social media or to speak to the media. He upheld his end of the bargain for a few short weeks. Despite the government's public stance that their prosecution was solely focused on financial crimes, Mr. Ai later told journalists his inquisitors were uninterested in taxes. He said the interrogations sought to uncover his role in what overseas Web sites had dubbed the Jasmine Revolution, a call for Chinese to take to the streets in an Arab Spring-style protest movement. Mr. Ai denied any role in what turned out to be a nonevent. The government did not issue any public statement on Friday. But its legal victory is unlikely to dent Mr. Ai's finances. In November, his supporters donated $1.4 million to pay the bond for the tax appeal; Mr. Ai has also become one of the most sought-after and wealthy Chinese artists, in part because of the notoriety he has gained as a dissident. His celebrity will likely be burnished even more in the coming weeks, when a documentary about him, "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," opens in theaters across the United States. Jacob Fromer contributed research.