BEIJING - China's crackdown before next week's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has widened to block a well-known artist and an economist who's more than 80-years old from travelling overseas.
Artist Ai Weiwei said he was stopped from getting on a flight from Beijing to Seoul on Thursday night, while economist Mao Yushi said he was prevented from flying to Singapore on Wednesday morning. Both are supporters of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who is now serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion.
Liu's wife has been confined to her home as China appears to be blocking Liu's family and supporters from travelling to Norway for the Dec. 10 ceremony.
So far, only one of about 140 Chinese activists invited by Liu's wife to attend the ceremony has said he'll be able to make it. More than a dozen have been blocked from flying overseas since Liu won the peace prize in October.
Mao, who is in his 80s and is one of China's best-known economists, said officials at the Beijing airport told him travelling abroad would endanger national security.
"It reminded me of the Cultural Revolution," he posted on his microblog Thursday. "I'm blocked from going abroad and they say it's for national security. It's the same logic."
Ai, an avant-garde artist who recently exhibited at the Tate Modern gallery in London, said police blocked him at the boarding gate and showed him a handwritten note that said he could cause damage to national security by leaving.
"I asked whether I could keep it as proof, she said no," Ai posted on Twitter on Thursday night.
Neither was on the invite list issued by Liu's wife, Liu Xia, but they have been outspoken supporters. Both have said they do not plan to go to the Nobel ceremony.
Border officials at Beijing's main airport had no immediate comment Thursday. In China's latest comment on Liu, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters on Thursday this year's award is a "crude intrusion" on China's affairs.
"I think the government has gone too far," said Patrick Poon, executive secretary of the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, who is helping co-ordinate Nobel receptions in Oslo. "It simply further worsens China's international image."
So far, the only activist on the list who says he'll attend the Nobel ceremony is Wan Yanhai, who fled to the United States this year after increasing harassment of his AIDS advocacy group by Chinese authorities.
Yang Jianli, an exiled Chinese democracy activist who is helping to co-ordinate the guest list, has said some Chinese dissidents living outside mainland China would attend.
Beijing has also tried to persuade or pressure foreign governments to boycott the award ceremony. A handful of countries, including Russia and Cuba, have declined to attend.
