An outspoken Chinese writer and government critic said he had been blocked from leaving the country to participate in Europe’s largest international literary festival.
Liao Yiwu (廖亦武) said he was already on the plane in Chengdu on Monday when a flight attendant told him people were looking for him.
“A large group of people were waiting at the entrance,” Liao said yesterday from his home, where he said he was now under house arrest.
Liao said he was taken to a police station where state security agents questioned him for about four hours on why he wanted to speak at Cologne’s international literary festival.
CULTURAL EVENT
“How can this happen?” Liao said. “It’s a cultural event, nothing political. Such drama.”
The police were still downstairs at his home, he said. He’s been told not to leave his home “at this time.”
He said police gave no legal basis for detaining him.
Chengdu’s public security bureau had no comment on Liao and referred questions to the foreign affairs office of the city government, which said it was not immediately familiar with the incident.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Monday issued a statement saying he regretted China’s decision to prevent Liao from traveling to Germany.
“We will continue to argue for freedom of opinion and civil rights in an open dialogue with China and hope to be able to welcome Liao Yiwu in Germany soon,” he said.
Liao’s writings, mostly banned in China but published in the West, often show those left behind by the nation’s economic rise. A collection of his interviews with people from the margins of Chinese society, called The Corpse Walker in its English version, was recently published in German.
WAILING
Liao spent four years in prison after he recorded himself wailing and reading his poem about the military crushing pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
He has also interviewed and written about victims of the massive 2008 earthquake in his home province of Sichuan.
In a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month, Liao said he had been blocked before from leaving the country, most recently for last fall’s Frankfurt Book Fair, where China was the guest of honor and sent many writers to attend.
Liao’s letter to Merkel said police had told him he would not be able to leave the country. He said police again warned him after his letter was made public.
Liao said yesterday this was the 13th time he had tried and failed to leave the country. He said he has never been outside China.
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