Authors led by Salman Rushdie issued a protest on Friday after outspoken Chinese writer Liao Yiwu (廖亦武) said Beijing refused him permission to travel to New York for a literary festival.
Liao, who spent four years in jail after writing the poem Massacre about the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, was slapped with a ban on leaving China days before he was due to fly out, festival organizers said.
Rushdie, who had invited Liao to take part in the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature opening tomorrow, said that he and other writers “emphatically protest this travel ban.”
“One of China’s most censored writers, Liao’s groundbreaking writing has for years been off-limits to his fellow citizens; now his government seeks to extend the long arm of censorship overseas,” the Indian-born novelist said.
Rushdie called the ban “an extremely unfortunate statement on the part of Chinese authorities about its willingness to engage in free and open cultural exchange.”
Rushdie said that the festival would set up an empty chair to represent Liao at events he was due to attend, including a lecture with Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka.
Liao had also been due to travel to Australia for the Sydney Writers’ Festival next month.
China has launched its biggest crackdown on dissent in years amid a wave of pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East. Internet postings have encouraged Chinese to go on mass “strolls” through major cities.
Acclaimed artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未), whose criticism of the government had been begrudgingly tolerated, was detained earlier this month as he tried to fly from Beijing to Hong Kong.
Liao, who is also a musician and historian, published the story collection The Corpse Walker which relates the changing lives of 27 Chinese people from assorted backgrounds.
He was allowed to travel to Berlin last year after seeking assistance from the German government. In Berlin, Liao vowed to keep speaking his mind, saying: “It’s important that an author not censor himself.”
PEN is an international literary organization active on human rights. Liao, along with jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), have both been active in the Independent Chinese PEN Center.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was