China: Dissident Author Flees to U.S.

By Edward Wong | The New York Times

18 January 2012

Yu Jie, a prominent writer of 11 books and a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, said Wednesday in a news conference in Washington that he and his family had left China on Jan. 11 after more than a year of harassment and house arrest.

Mr. Yu said his ordeal began Oct. 13, 2010, when he was placed under house arrest after the announcement that his close friend Liu Xiaobo, an imprisoned writer, had won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. That December, Mr. Yu said, he was detained for four days and tortured nearly to death. He said security officers criticized him for planning to write a biography of Mr. Liu and for writing "China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao," a scathing critique of the prime minister.

Mr. Yu was then kept under house arrest, with a travel ban, until this month.

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