China were the focus nation at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair and of course there were plenty of stories about the tension between the Chinese government’s official presentation and the treatment of dissident writers. After he complied with the wishes of the government and failed to allow several dissident writers to speak, organiser Peter Ripken was fired by the fair following the closing ceremony last week. According to The New York Times: “Mr. Ripken said that it was the German Foreign Ministry, which has refused to comment, that did not want the dissidents to speak, and told the German news service Deutsche Welle: “The Foreign Ministry has stated explicitly that this fair is not there just for China, and I acted in accordance with this wish.” He said that the Chinese writers were never formally invited to address the closing ceremony.” The fair recorded attendance figures of 290 000 for this year’s event, down 9 000 from last year.

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