Noel Gallagher has been banned from China for life

Noel Gallagher has been banned from China for life after being classed as an ‘enemy of the people’.

The former Oasis guitarist received a letter from the Chinese government stating he is banned because he is an enemy of the Chinese people as a result of his performance at the 1997 Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York.

However, his brother Liam is still permitted to visit China whenever he pleases after he turned down the invitation to appear at the gig.

Noel only realised his predicament in 2009 when Oasis were due to go on tour in Beijing and Shanghai – there, officials within the Chinese Ministry of Culture branding the band as ‘unsuitable’ to perform.

The singer-songwriter told The Daily Star: “I’m an enemy of the people. I only found out I was banned when Oasis got invited to go to China a good twenty years ago. 

“We’d agreed to go and all the paperwork came and you had to send through a list of your songs and the Chinese government sent you back a list of songs that weren’t appropriate and we’d agreed to do all that.

“About a month before we were about to leave I got a letter saying you lot can come but you can’t because of this thing you did for the Tibetan people.

“I’d forgot I’d even done it! The reason that they didn’t want you there was in case you started spouting off some pro-Tibetan s**t.

“I was like, ‘Mate, I’m not even interested in Tibet, I’m not arsed just let me go’.

“I’ve got a letter somewhere from the Minister of The Interior saying, ‘You are an enemy of the people’, or something like that. The rest were invited with open arms.”

Noel added that he’d only played the Free Tibet Concert because Liam and none of his former bandmates could be bothered to do it. 

He recalled of his solo gig: “I walked out on stage in front of 50,000 people and as I walked out I thought, ‘Why have I agreed to do this? I’m not even the f***ing singer. I’ve got a Marshall stack and I’m going to do ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Cast No Shadow’.

“As I remember I only did about three or four songs, but it felt like it was about four hours long.”