China bars noted scholar from planned trip to US

A prominent Chinese scholar and film critic who was scheduled to speak at an academic conference in the United States this week said Friday that she had been barred from leaving China as punishment for her commentary on human rights and free speech. The scholar, Cui Weiping, 54, a poet and professor at the Beijing Film Academy, said that she had planned to lecture at Harvard and attend a conference sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies in Philadelphia, but that the director of her school called this week to say she had been forbidden to travel. "I was told I had classes to teach and that the lecture I was giving was not my specialty, but those were just excuses," said Ms. Cui, who was to have left on Wednesday. "The real reason is that they want to put pressure on me, and they want to punish me."