BEIJING — Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and recently imprisoned dissident, said Wednesday that he had agreed to become a visiting lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2012, but that he did not know whether China’s government would allow him to leave the country to work there.

He said he was concerned about how the Chinese authorities would react to the offer because “it shows strong support for my moral position.”

Caught up in China’s broad crackdown on political dissension after the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa this year, Mr. Ai was detained by state security officials in April, held incommunicado this spring and later charged with tax evasion. A hearing on his case is to be held on Thursday in Beijing....