Why did Ai Weiwei begin writing a blog for the Sina Web portal?

Ai Weiwei did not begin writing his blog for the Sina Web portal with the explicit intent of political activism. In 2005, he was invited to contribute to the platform and initially used the space to document the mundane aspects of his daily life.1

However, he soon transitioned the blog into a forum for blunt criticism of the Chinese government. This shift allowed him to publicly address issues such as official corruption surrounding the 2008 Olympic Games and to mobilize his readers to investigate the government's lack of transparency following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.1