A U.S. appeals court has approved asylum for a Chinese censor who reportedly became attracted to the books he confiscated.

Xu Sheng Gao left China in 2000. His lawyer said he was questioned and beaten by police after a colleague in the port of Qingdao noticed he had advised a bookseller to throw away a banned book and had not confiscated it or given the shop owner a ticket, The New York Sun reported.

After traveling to San Francisco, Xu settled in New York.

Xu was in charge of a squad of inspectors in Qingdao, court papers said. Their job was to search for pornography and some political works.

But he became interested in books that "tell peoples the freedom of the Western Countries," Xu testified. He started bringing books home and sometimes lending them to friends. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 07 September 2007   

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