(TibetanReview.net, Dec20, 2015) – China has on Dec 17 prevented prominent Chinese writer Wang Lixiong from boarding a plane for Japan from Beijing airport, alleging he supports Tibet’s independence and the Dalai Lama, reported Japan’s Kyodo news service Dec 19. The authorities cited reasons such as that he supports Tibet’s independence in cooperation with the Dalai Lama and that his trip will therefore harm national interests and security, the report added.
“I was prohibited from leaving the country before, but this is the first time it was clearly on national security grounds,” the report quoted Wang as saying. “I believe this is a new way of controlling human rights lawyers and other dissidents.”
Wang, 62, had planned to travel to Tokyo and Hokkaido, and then to Taiwan to see its presidential and legislative elections in Jan 2016. The ruling Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) there, which is pro-China, is expected to lose to the independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party.
Wang has written more than 10 books on democracy, Tibet and Xinjiang, with all of them being banned in his country. The Japanese translation of his famous science-fiction novel “Yellow Peril,” which depicts the collapse of the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, went on sale just last month, the report said.
Wang is married to Tsering Woeser, a well-known Tibetan writer and poet in Chinese, with her works also being banned in China. She is an active blogger on the situation in Chinese ruled Tibet.