China Blocks Top Writer's Trip Abroad

China has blocked one of its leading writers from leaving the country to attend an Australian literary festival. Liao Yiwu was imprisoned for four years after writing a bold eulogy for those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. After asking him to meet at a local teahouse, officials told him he couldn’t leave, but gave no reason for the decision, the author tells the New York Times, adding that "I was politely treated." Liao, author of The Corpse Walker, was barred from travel 14 times between 1999 and last year, he says. (More Liao Yiwu stories.)