Chinese novelist’s works wiped from internet after attack on Xi Jinping

A prominent Chinese novelist has had her works removed from the country’s internet after daring to attack President Xi Jinping.

Writer Yan Geling.

A prominent Chinese novelist has had her works removed from the country’s internet, apparently on the orders of the Communist Party, after she called President Xi Jinping a “human trafficker”.

Yan Geling, 63, whose works have inspired several films, criticised the impact of Chinese baby girls being abandoned or sold after a video emerged of a woman chained up by her husband in the eastern city of Xuzhou, having had eight children with him.

In an online program Yan had claimed that Mr Xi was implicated in human trafficking during the country’s strict one-child policy, when many baby girls were abandoned, while the government imposed high fees on foreigners adopting Chinese babies.

The conversation with Zhou Xiaozheng, a Chinese sociologist now in the US, followed a furore over footage of the woman, who was found in a hut in freezing and impoverished conditions.

Authorities initially dismissed suspicions that the woman had been abducted. But last week, amid public pressure, three people including her husband were detained after an investigation found she had been trafficked and sold to him. The case has gripped the nation for more than two weeks, stoking an outcry not only over the conditions in which she was found, but also how the couple could have had such a large family while China had strict laws restricting couples to one or two children.

The video showed the woman hesitating over basic questions and without a coat in winter weather. She was taken to hospital for treatment and identified by Xuzhou police as Xiao Huamei from the southwest province of Yunnan. Her husband, identified as Dong, claimed to have found her on the streets, but is now accused of human trafficking.

Yan, born in Shanghai but now living in Berlin, was one of the first figures to speak up. In an article now censored in China, she empathised with the woman. “The other end of the metal chain is tied to me,” Yan wrote. “I can feel the crude iron is sucking the temperature from her neck. I can feel the hardness of that frozen porridge.”

Yan’s article galvanised supporters of the woman, and Zhou invited the author on to his program, where he accused the Chinese government of playing a role in human trafficking. He cited high adoption fees as proof.

Yan agreed: “Right, Xi Jinping is a human trafficker. Damn it.”

Yan is one of the most influential Chinese-language writers. Five of her novels have been adapted for film, including Coming Home, based on her novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi, and Youth, adapted from You Touched Me. Her works have since been removed from internet search results, and were not available to buy or read on Tuesday.

The Times