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Police block PEN gathering in China, hold two writers

Chinese police banned a gathering of writers from taking place in Beijing yesterday, sparking fears that authorities were continuing to crack down on dissent ahead of the Olympics, a dissident writer said.

About 20 people who planned to attend the year-end dinner of the Independent Chinese PEN society, a local branch of an international association of writers, have been barred from attending, its chairman, Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), said.

Some have been put under house arrest while others were warned by police to stay at home, he said. Some of the people put under surveillance were not even members of the association.

Police summoned Liu on Friday to tell him to call off the annual dinner, which was to be attended by as many as 50 intellectuals from across China, he said.

"No reason was given, they just said it was an order from above," Liu said.

One Shanghai-based writer and activist, Li Jianhong (李劍虹), has been detained by police in a hotel there since Wednesday and was told she was not allowed to attend the gathering, a statement on Chinese PEN's Web site said.

Another writer, Liao Yiwu (廖亦武), who had traveled to Beijing from his home in the southwest city of Chengdu, was put under house arrest in Beijing and was told he would be sent back later yesterday.

Liu declined to speculate on the reason for government intervention, but said he was puzzled as the authorities had tolerated annual dinners organized by the society since 2004.

"The crude intervention of the police has no legal basis and is without reason ... it is a barbaric and illegal act from the law enforcers and is a blatant abuse of human rights," Liu said.

"It makes the government's promise to the outside world of `Olympic human rights' ring hollow," Liu said.

Despite China's pledge to ease curbs on media and individual freedoms ahead of the 2008 Olympics, human and media rights groups say Beijing's leaders are still intensifying their crackdown on dissent.

Reporters Without Borders says that at least 30 journalists and 50 cyber-dissidents were being detained in China for work that had angered authorities.

It ranks China No. 163 out of 167 countries on its global press freedom index.

The Independent Chinese PEN Center was formed in 2001 and says it has about 200 members.

In February, International PEN said Beijing blocked 20 Chinese writers from attending a conference in Hong Kong.
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