Chinese author Liao Yiwu seeks Merkel support on travel ban

Feb 8, 2010, 16:52 GMT

Frankfurt - A blacklisted author who has graphically described the lives of underdogs in China has appealed to Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to oppose Beijing's ban on him travelling abroad, a publisher said in Frankfurt on Monday.

Liao Yiwu, 50, who said he had no desire to emigrate permanently, added he would test the ban by buying an airline ticket and trying to get aboard a plane leaving China.

The letter was released by S Fischer Verlag, the German company which has published his book, Interviews with People from the Bottom Rung of Society.

Last October, Liao was refused permission to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair, where China was the special focus.

The publisher had also planned to pay for him to visit a festival of literature in Cologne next month, but has again been told he will not receive an exit permit.

'Don't allow literature to be yet again humiliated by authority,' said the open letter, which the publisher translated from Chinese and forwarded to the chancellor. 'You are the German chancellor and know from your own experience what dictatorship means.'

This refers to Merkel's childhood and education in communist-run East Germany.

Liao said in the letter he would apply for an entry visa at the German embassy in Beijing, buy an airline ticket and go to the airport. 'I will try everything to travel to Germany,' he wrote.

He added that he would not be asking Germany for political asylum but would return home afterwards.

Liao's book consists of interviews with toilet janitors, prostitutes, elderly monks, political prisoners and street artists.

He also wrote a long poem, Massacre, dealing with the violent suppression in 1989 of pro-democracy protests in Beijing. This led to him spending four years in detention.