From AP via TaiPei Times:
China either banned or warned more than 20 Chinese writers from attending an international writers’ conference held in Hong Kong over the weekend, organizers said yesterday.
“We are very concerned by the restrictions on the writers in mainland China to write, travel and associate freely,” said Jiri Grusa, president of International PEN, which organized the event.
Writers Zan Aizong (ÊòùÊÑõÂÆó) and Zhao Dagong (Ë∂ôÈÅîÂäü) had travel papers but were blocked from leaving mainland China and author Qin Geng’s travel documents were confiscated, PEN said.
Zhang Yihe (章詒和), who wrote a memoir on an anti-rightist campaign in China that was among the eight banned books, decided not to attend the conference after being warned.[Full Text]