International diplomats have expressed a great deal of outrage over the plight of detained artist Ai Weiwei, but so far they have failed to sway Chinese authorities to release him. In fact, diplomatic efforts have proved powerless even to prevent disruptions of the work of Ai Weiwei supporters right here in the United States.

Since April 18, the Web site Change.org has been under sustained cyberattack from hackers inside China — a result of its hosting of a petition for the artist's release, spearheaded by the Guggenheim and now signed by some 141,000 people including many prominent museum directors. Brian Purchia, a representative of Change.org, tells ARTINFO that more than a month and a half after the assault began, the site is still under pressure and experiencing periods of "downtime" due to its advocacy of Ai Weiwei.

The United States State Department, it seems, has dithered as this activist organization continues to be targeted by foreign agents. Last month representative Rosa DeLauro took the lead in the composition of a letter to secretary of state Hillary Clinton concerning the siege on Change.org, asking her "to personally condemn these attacks and take action to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice."

On June 9, representative DeLauro finally received a letter from the State Department's acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs Joseph E. Macmanus, assuring her that the State Department was concerned about the detention of artists and intellectuals in China, as well as the cyberattacks on Change.org. Macmanus then claimed that the U.S. government had actively petitioned the Chinese government to help stop the attacks. Deputy assistant secretary Dan Baer "raised the case of Change.org directly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" during the so-called U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue in Beijing, April 27-28, according to the letter.

And yet, the attacks on Change.org continue, and only now has representative DeLauro received a response from Clinton's office about the matter. This slow-motion response may be due to the general slowness of the D.C. mail — the State Department's reply is dated May 18 — but DeLauro's office also did not receive an electronic version of the correspondence.

In the meantime, Change.org communications director Purchia says that the Web site is dealing with matters on its own: "We are working with an online security services provider to ensure that Change.org doesn't suffer from the ongoing attacks."