China gave ammunition to critics of its human rights record yesterday by banning the wife of a jailed activist from travelling abroad to collect an award on his behalf.

Despite there being less than a year to go before the Beijing Olympics and the international spotlight being trained on China’s treatment of dissidents, the authorities did not hesitate to revoke the passport of Yuan Weijing as she tried to board a flight to the Philippines.

The latest harassment of Mrs Yuan began when she tried to leave the home of a friend, an Aids activist, to reach the airport, only to find her way blocked by about 30 police. She was allowed to leave after about 45 minutes, but the activist, Hu Jia, was not allowed to accompany her. At the airport Mrs Yuan was prevented from boarding her flight.

A British Embassy official, who had gone to Mrs Yuan’s house to see if she would be allowed to leave, voiced concern at the harassment. She said: “This is a case we have raised at the highest levels with the Chinese. We are concerned both for the safety of human rights defenders and for the ability of journalists to report freely.”

Several reporters were held briefly by police outside the house, in an eastern suburb of Beijing.

Mrs Yuan had hoped to go to Manila, where the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation — which awards outstanding achievement by Asian individuals and organisations — has honoured her husband, Chen Guangcheng, for emergent leadership, citing his “irrepressible passion for justice in leading ordinary Chinese citizens to assert their legitimate rights under the law”.

The self-taught legal activist, who is blind, was sentenced to four years and three months in jail last year for disrupting traffic and damaging property. His wife says that the charges were concocted by officials in Shandong province after Mr Chen exposed cases of late-term forced abortions and sterilisations in his home town.

Mrs Yuan said: “My passport very obviously is valid until March 2008. Moreover, I already have my visa. There is no reason to revoke it. My lawyer told me the foreign affairs department is not qualified to do this.”

The decision to stop Mrs Yuan from leaving the country demonstrates China’s determination to prevent government critics from drawing international attention to human rights abuses in the run-up to the Olympics.

Mr Hu, the Aids activist, told The Times that he had received a brief telephone call from Mrs Yuan to say that she was hiding in a toilet, but that she could not say where she was. Mr Hu said: “I heard the sound of somebody knocking on the door, and then the phone went dead.” It was likely that police from Shandong were escorting her back to her home town.

Mr Hu added: “Their deeds today only make the world sick of China. Does the Government not understand this? They just do everything in the worst possible way.”

China has blocked two other winners of Magsaysay prizes from collecting their awards, including Jiang Yanyong, an army surgeon who embarrassed the Government by revealing the true scale of the Sars outbreak in 2003. Also barred was Gao Yaojie, an elderly Aids activist, who has been harassed repeatedly for trying to tell the truth about the scale of the epidemic.

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