Chinese writer again blocked from leaving country, this time for German literary festival

China writer blocked from going to German festival

BEIJING — An outspoken Chinese writer and government critic says he has been blocked from leaving China for a 13th time, this time taken off a plane as he was setting off for Europe’s largest international literary festival.

Liao Yiwu said he was already on the plane in the southwestern city of 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 Tuesday 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.

“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.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, responding to a question about Liao’s case at a regularly scheduled press conference Tuesday, said citizens are free to enter and leave China according to law. “We hope the relevant country will respect the law enforcement carried out by the Chinese authorities,” Qin said.

Liao’s writings, mostly banned in China but published in the West, often show those left behind by the country’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.

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. The tape became an underground success, passed from person to person.

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 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 Tuesday this was the 13th time he had tried to leave the country. He said he has never been outside China.

The New York-based Human Rights in China has issued a statement protesting Liao’s latest detention and included Liao’s statement to German readers.

“I regret to say that I have exhausted all my efforts,” he wrote.

He told The Associated Press he had already sent some writing and music to the festival as a precaution.

“In this China, which is free for neither the living nor the dead, my readers, your attentive listening to this story will also comfort me at the edge of the grave,” his letter to German readers said.

Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.