(September 9, 2009) Beijing – China’s government censors are attempting to keep critics away from a conference in Germany ahead of the world’s largest trade fair for books, Chinese authors said Wednesday.

Author Dai Qing and philosophy professor Xu Youyo told the German Press Agency dpa in Beijing that they were invited by the organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair to participate in the conference this weekend, but the Beijing General Administration of Press and Publication withheld the invitations.

Germany’s Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported Wednesday a ‘censorship scandal’ ahead of October’s fair, saying China threatened to boycott the conference should Dai Qing, a dissident author, participate.

The Frankfurt conference was set up ahead of the fair to help reduce misunderstandings and prejudice concerning China, organizers said.

Each year, one country, the so-called guest of honour, has the opportunity to present its culture, literature and history at the fair. China is the guest of honour in 2009.

Dai Qing said an employee of the censorship office told her that she was not on the list of participants for the conference. The office returned her invitation to Germany although the German organizers had already booked her ticket and hotel, she said.

‘In October, China will spend 50 million yuan [7.3 million dollars] to fly 100 especially selected authors to Germany,’ the 68-year-old writer told the Berliner Zeitung. ‘But those who, like I, could speak inconvenient truths are prevented by all means possible from leaving.’

She said Xu as well as Liang Xiaoyan and Xu Xiao, two intellectuals critical of the government, were also bumped off the trip to Frankfurt.

According to Xu Youyu, China intervened to make sure that ‘Chinese participants who have independent political views are not invited.’ There was no official confirmation for that assertion.

The professor is a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and earlier this year demanded a review of the crackdown on China’s democracy movement on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Monsters and Crititcs.com, September 9, 2009

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