July 19, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
News
Chinese Nobel Laureate’s Death Turns Focus to Widow’s Fate
Friends and supporters are now concerned that Liu Xia, Liu Xiabo's widow, may never regain her freedom
BEIJING — Friends of the dissident
who would become China’s fi rst Nobel
Peace Prize laureate had for decades
urged him to leave the country that
sent him to prison time and again. Liu
Xiaobo always said no.
When Liu had a chance to seek asy-
lum abroad aft er the 1989 Tiananmen
pro-democracy protests, he declined.
Urged again in the 2000s to leave aft er
needling the government with his es-
says, he again said no. He might be safer
overseas, Liu told friends, but he would
sacrifi ce the moral authority of a cam-
paigner who persisted under one-par-
ty authoritarian Communist rule.
Then in March, one development fi -
nally broke the resolve of China’s most
famous political prisoner: his wife’s de-
clining health.
“For the person he loved, he changed
his mind,” said Wu Yangwei, a close
family friend who writes under the
name Ye Du.
Forcibly sequestered in her home by
state security agents for seven years
because of her husband’s alleged
crimes, Liu Xia had become severely
depressed and was suff ering heart at-
tacks. Once Liu, serving an 11-year pris-
on sentence, found out about her con-
dition, he decided he would be willing
to leave if it would save the soft -spoken
poet and artist, friends said.
But following Liu Xiaobo’s death
Thursday aft er a brief battle with ad-
AP PHOTO/ANDY WONG, FILE
By Gerry Shih and Didi Tang
Associated Press
out of China, possi-
bly to Germany, for
treatment of a heart
problem, said Liao
Yiwu, a close fam-
ily friend and Ber-
lin-based writer.
“We were encour-
aged by the negotia-
tions’ progress,” Liao
said. “But then Liu
Xiaobo’s
situation
exploded suddenly
in June.” Liao said
he and the couple
thought they could
In this Sept. 28, 2010, fi le photo, Liu Xia, wife of Chinese dissident Liu argue that some can-
Xiaobo, speaks during an interview in Beijing. Friends of Chinese Nobel cer treatments could
Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo's family say that eff orts to persuade Beijing only be performed
to allow the couple to leave China were motivated not so much to seek in Germany. The
treatment for the terminally ill political prisoner but to facilitate an German Embassy in
escape from China for his severely depressed wife, Liu Xia. Liu's death on Beijing declined to
Thursday, July 13, 2017, has now returned his wife's fate back to the fore, comment.
with foreign offi cials calling for Beijing to release her from house arrest
Beijing rejected the
and let her leave the country as she wishes.
Lius’ requests and
the appeals from for-
vanced liver cancer, friends and sup- eign governments, saying Liu Xiaobo
porters are now concerned that Liu Xia was receiving the best possible care in
may never regain her freedom. Foreign China. Friends now fear Beijing may
offi cials including the U.S. ambassador restrict Liu Xia’s movements and pre-
to China, European Council leaders vent her from communicating with the
and others have called on Beijing to re- outside.
lease Liu Xia, who was never convicted
“Liu Xiaobo surely shared with her
of any crimes.
his thoughts, which can be expressed
Back in March, before his cancer di- through Liu Xia,” said Wu, the writer.
agnosis, Liu Xiaobo’s change of heart “Imagine the consequences if Liu Xia
prompted a round of talks between should be free and accept the Nobel
Chinese authorities and the German Peace Prize on his behalf?”
government in an eff ort to get Liu Xia
Aft er Liu Xiaobo was awarded the
Information is powerful.
The power is
in your hands.
NEWS
www.TheSkanner.com
TheSkannerNews
@TheSkannerNews
Nobel Prize in 2010, Beijing placed
tight controls over Liu Xia, banning
her from using a cellphone or the inter-
net, eff ectively cutting her off from the
outside world. Aft er she was diagnosed
with depression, she was allowed to
visit with a small number of friends.
Guards remained outside her door 24
hours a day, sleeping on a cot at night.
“This kind of isolation is (a form of )
torture, and it’s been seven years for
her,” said Yu Jie, a family friend who
has written a biography of Liu Xiaobo.
Born in 1961 into the family of a se-
nior fi nancial sector offi cial in Beijing,
Liu Xia quit her post at a publishing
house in her 20s and pursued poetry
and painting instead of the tax bureau
job that her father arranged for her.
By the time they met, Liu Xiaobo had
gained considerable notoriety for his
bold criticisms of heavyweight au-
thors. During the 1980s, a period of rel-
ative freedom and intellectual foment
in China, he gave popular talks at Bei-
jing Normal University and traveled to
New York and Norway to lecture.
In later years, Liu Xia, an accom-
plished poet, would bristle at the sug-
gestion she was subordinate to Liu
Xiaobo. But on Tiananmen Square in
the heady early months of 1989, she
gazed from afar on the charismatic
literature professor — her future hus-
band — who was organizing a hunger
strike days before the tanks rolled in.
Read the rest of this story at
TheSkanner.com