Ai Weiwei: China is laughing at Britain

China is laughing at Britain over Hong Kong, Ai Weiwei has suggested.

The Chinese dissident artist and activist bemoaned the response of Western politicians to unrest in Hong Kong, adding he has “no trust” in the UK.

Asked if Britain has a special responsibility, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think Britain has been laughed about by the Chinese government.

“They think Britain is just nothing, it’s like an insult about Britain, about what Britain’s going to do – they cannot even deal with the issues facing them. I don’t think Britain is going to take any responsibility. As someone fighting for human rights, I have no trust for Britain at all.”

A series of protests have taken place in Hong Kong over the summer, initially triggered by controversial extradition proposals that would have allowed some suspects to be sent to mainland China for trials. Two Scottish schools built on a former landfill site will reopen on Monday after an official investigation concluded they are not contaminated and are safe for pupils and staff.

A series of tests carried out at the campus shared by Buchanan and St Ambrose high schools in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, found no link to reports of ill health.

The review was ordered by the Scottish Government after a series of health scares resulted in staff going on strike and some parents withdrawing their children from the schools.

Last year blue-tinted water was discovered coming from taps and more recently it emerged that four current or former teachers at one of the schools had developed cancer.

The schools were built on land formerly used for the disposal of waste including lead and arsenic, but the review said extensive testing had found no cause for concern.

It said water samples taken at the site had passed all quality standards and the methane membrane under the school building had been installed correctly, so no harmful gases were being released.

However, it did find elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls – a chemical subject to an international industrial ban – at the “periphery” of the school campus. The authors