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The artist who designed the Beijing national stadium, known as the Bird Nest, said that he was kicked and shoved outside a police station in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-west China.
"Some undercover police tore our shirts and tried to grab our cameras. There were maybe 10 of them. They pushed and kicked us," he said in a telephone interview. "Now we are being attacked because we complained about last time. It is so ironic."
Ai and several other activists were detained in Chengdu last year to prevent them attending the trial of a campaigner investigating schoolchildren's deaths in the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. The subject has become highly sensitive because of allegations that shoddy construction, linked to corruption, was to blame for the high death toll in schools.
Ai said a policeman punched him in the head in that incident, leaving him with painful headaches, and he underwent surgery in Germany weeks later after doctors spotted internal bleeding.
Today he went to Chengdu's city police department, but says it refused to take his complaint and referred him to the police station at Jinniu.
He said that as he arrived at that building he was surrounded by men who assaulted him and his assistant, and told him: "If you want justice, go back to the US."
Ai lived in America for several years but is still a Chinese citizen.
He said that he recognised one of the men from his detention last year and believes the group were plain-clothes officers.
He added: "I tried to go through the judicial system to make a report [about the earlier assault], but no one will give us any answers. They have pushed us from one place to another.
"China's judicial system is totally corrupt and paralysed. Even with a case that people internationally know, they don't give a shit."
Ai said he was now at the complaints office but that he had been refused a receipt for his report and feared they would simply drop it in the bin. He said: "We have to make the effort, but we can't really win.
"We know we can't really get [satisfaction] but we still have to go through the system – if you don't do it, that's your own fault for giving up your rights."
An employee at Jinniu police station said they was not aware of any incident there today. The propaganda department at Chengdu's city police department refused to comment.
