He made the Birds Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing so he'll be brought up forever.
I was introduced to his work as a kid and people seem to always mention him and his work just to say "China bad." Everytime I try to listen to why it just sounds like grey unlistenable sludge. Partially because I don't know much about history in general so I don't know what the mentioned parts of Chinese history are about. My final reason to give up is because I know much/all of what I hear is probably whitewashed propaganda. If he indeed has good criticism, I don't trust Western media to not twist his words out of their original meaning.
Who gets chosen as “the well regarded artist” is also the work of political jockeying. Ai Wei Wei enjoyed rising popularity because of past criticism of China, but has received a hit to his reputation thinking that his criticism had weight beyond that, like when he lightly criticized america (i cant remember how, i just remember it happened).
The only reason anyone outside the west in art is ever spoken about is when it can be used for propaganda, the art world has already been irreversibly infiltrated by the state.