Outspoken Chinese writer, government critic Liao Yiwu awarded prominent German literary prize

BERLIN – Liao Yiwu, an outspoken Chinese writer and critic of his country’s government, has been awarded a prominent German literary prize.

The German book publishers’ association named Liao Thursday as the winner of its annual Peace Prize. Previous winners of the €25,000 ($31,700) award, to be handed over during the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, include Orhan Pamuk and Mario Vargas Llosa.

The association praised Liao as someone who “protests undauntedly against political repression and gives the disenfranchised of his country a voice that can be heard far away.”

Liao fled to Germany last year. He has said Chinese police warned him that if he published anything overseas again, he would be jailed.

He’s known for “The Corpse Walker,” a published series of interviews with people on the margins of China’s society.