Criminal Nation

China responsible for Liu Xiaobo’s premature death: Norwegian Nobel Committee’s leader said that Xiaobo should have been transferred to a facility for adequate medical treatment.

Reuters

Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill.

Berit Reiss-Andersen wrote in an email that the Chinese government bore heavy responsibility for Xiaobo's death.

Oslo -- The Chinese government bears a heavy responsibility for the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, the leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prize, said on Thursday.
“We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen.
“The Chinese Government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death,” she told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Norway's Nobel panel blames free world
Norway's Nobel Committee has mourned the death of Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and leveled harsh criticism at the "free world'' for its "hesitant, belated reactions'' to his serious illness and imprisonment.
The organization's chairwoman, Berit Reiss-Andersen, says the Chinese government "bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death.''
Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 but was unable to attend the award ceremony because he had been sentenced to prison by Chinese officials for allegedly inciting subversion.
Reiss-Andersen said in a statement that in the committee's view, "he had not committed any criminal act ... his trial and imprisonment were unjust.''
She said, "It is a sad and disturbing fact that the representatives of the free world, who themselves hold democracy and human rights in high regard, are less willing to stand up for those rights for the benefit of others.''

Political Murder

True honor lies not with China’s rulers but with the man they imprisoned until his death
Washington Post

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in April 2008. 

POLITICAL DISSIDENCE is a great, and beautiful, mystery. 

For those living under repressive rule, the path of least resistance is, well, not to resist — to accommodate and survive, or, in less honorable but hardly rare cases, to collaborate. 

And yet, some do choose the more decent and difficult way. 

Out of idealism, necessity, sheer refusal to submit or some unfathomable combination of all three, they stand up, they speak out, they assume risks.
China’s Liu Xiaobo epitomized the dissident tradition, fighting back relentlessly but peacefully against a regime in his country that epitomized modern-day authoritarianism — until he died on Thursday at age 61.
Mr. Liu was born in 1955, amid the horrific throes of the early People’s Republic, and went on to study literature and philosophy, earning his doctorate in 1988. 

Moved by the fall of communism in Europe and the limited opening under Deng Xiaoping in China, he joined the student protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989. 

This conscientious activism earned him a two-year prison sentence. 

Later he served three years in a labor camp for other purported political offenses. 

Mr. Liu’s causes were liberty and democracy, which he considered universally applicable, not Western imports for which his native country was somehow “not ready.” 

His specific demand was that the Chinese Communist authorities accept the need for a constitutional overhaul that would establish elections, rule of law and freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly and of religion.
In December 2008, Mr. Liu joined other intellectuals in publishing Charter 08, a pro-democracy manifesto modeled on the Charter 77 issued by Czech dissidents 31 years earlier. 

Notably, the document not only called upon China’s rulers to enable a better future for their people; it also told the truth about the “gargantuan” price China’s people had paid since the 1949 revolution: “Tens of millions have lost their lives, and several generations have seen their freedom, their happiness, and their human dignity cruelly trampled,” the charter observed.
Forthrightly addressing China’s past, present and future earned Mr. Liu an 11-year sentence, for “inciting subversion of state power,” which began in late 2009 and which he was still serving, albeit on medical parole at a hospital, when he drew his last breath. His steadfast dissidence also earned Mr. Liu the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, though Beijing refused to let him travel to Oslo for the award ceremony, just as it also refused to let him receive friends and well-wishers in his final days, or to go abroad for medical treatment.
These final indignities were intended to degrade and humiliate, but the attempt was futile and indeed shames those who made it. 

Shortly before Mr. Liu died, the man ultimately responsible for this and so many other abuses in China, Xi Jinping, was basking in the glamour and glory of international politics at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg. 

Yet throughout Xi’s rule, the true locus of honor in China has been any place of confinement occupied by Liu Xiaobo.

Political Murder: Beijing is stalling on allowing Liu Xiaobo out of China

It is medically possible for dissident to be moved for treatment, but China is waiting until it is not
By Tom Phillips in Beijing

Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo is critically ill and under guard in a Chinese hospital.

Diplomats in Beijing say time is running out for the ailing Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo to go overseas for treatment and fear China’s top leaders are deliberately stalling the process until it is no longer safe for medics to move him.
Last Sunday two foreign doctors who were allowed to visit the critically ill dissident announced – contrary to Chinese claims – that Liu was well enough to be taken overseas but it needed to happen as quickly as possible.
On Wednesday – amid contested reports that his condition was deteriorating – voices within the diplomatic community told the Guardian they believed it was still possible for the dissident, who has asked to be treated in the US or Germany, to be taken overseas with his wife, Liu Xia.
“There still is a window of opportunity but it is rapidly closing,” they said.
However, the sources said they feared China’s leaders were playing a calculated waiting game, attempting to ride out a storm of international criticism until Liu was genuinely too unwell to be moved from the hospital in north-east China where he is being treated under guard.
Chinese leaders are reluctant to allow such a high-profile critic out of the country as they fear the disapproval of hardliners before a key Communist party congress this autumn marking the halfway point of Xi Jinping’s 10-year term.
Xi hopes to use the 19th party congress to stack the upper echelons of the party with loyalists.
“The leadership – with the party congress in mind – has decided to ride it out, irrespective of the considerable reputational damage,” the diplomatic sources said.
Beijing has sought to take advantage of the US retreat from the world stage under Donald Trump to boost its own soft power. 

It wants to portray China as a forward-looking nation that opposes protectionism and, unlike the US, is committed to fighting climate change.
However, Liu’s plight underlines the chasm between that claim to responsible global leadership and the realities of one-party China.
Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s east Asia director, said: “Hastening the death of a Nobel peace laureate is not the kind of leadership that the world needs from China.
“The treatment of Liu Xiaobo should sound serious alarms bells about China’s commitment to abide by international norms when the interest of the Communist party appear to be at stake.”
Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, added her voice to calls for Liu to be freed on Wednesday afternoon and said Taiwan was also willing to offer medical assistance to the dissident.
Asked repeatedly about Liu’s case by foreign journalists this week, Beijing has responded with the same mantra: “We oppose any countries interfering in China’s domestic affairs by using an individual case.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the hospital treating Liu claimed his condition had worsened and he was “close to death”. 

It said he had suffered respiratory failure but relatives had refused to allow him to be intubated. 

The hospital was making “great efforts” to save him.
However, supporters question the reliability of such official accounts, suspecting they are designed to bolster Beijing’s assertion that Liu is unfit to leave China rather than accurately convey the state of his health. 

One relative said Liu’s condition had actually improved.
Hu Ping, a US-based editor and friend of Liu, asked why the international community was not doing more to secure his release. 

“The Chinese government is consciously committing a political murder,” he said. 

“How far backwards is the world really moving?”
Ai Xiaoming, an activist and filmmaker, said: “Liu Xiaobo is no criminal. He is a person who has made a great contribution to China and to the world. He deserves to be free now.”

Political Murder

Nobel laureate's supporters call for inquiry into prison treatment.
http://www.aljazeera.com
Prison officials said Liu is being treated at a hospital in Shenyang city.
A growing chorus of Chinese human-rights lawyers and activists are calling for Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist Liu Xiaobo's unconditional release after he was granted medical parole to undergo treatment for late-stage liver cancer.
The US also added its voice on Tuesday urging China to give Liu and his wife, Liu Xia, freedom to move and choose his own doctors.
A brief video has emerged of Liu Xia tearfully telling a friend that no treatment -- surgery, radiation or chemotherapy -- would work for her husband at this point.
"[They] cannot perform surgery, cannot perform radiotherapy, cannot perform chemotherapy," Liu Xia, who has been under effective house arrest since 2010, says in the video.
The news has shocked and angered supporters and human-rights campaigners, who questioned if the democracy advocate had received adequate care or whether the Chinese government had deliberately allowed him to wither in prison.
Liu was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power" after he helped write a petition known as "Charter 08" calling for sweeping political reforms.
China has criticised calls for Liu's release as "irresponsible" and interference in its internal affairs.
Hundreds of Chinese lawyers, activists and friends have signed a petition calling on authorities to give Liu "complete freedom" and allow his wife to "have contact with the outside world".
They also called on authorities to carry out a "thorough investigation" into the circumstances that led to the deterioration of his health.

'Deliberately sentenced'
Prison officials said Liu is being treated by "eight renowned Chinese oncologists" at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang. 

Friends of the couple told AFP news agency that Liu Xia has been allowed to visit him there.
Wu'er Kaixi and Wang Dan, former student leaders at the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests who now live overseas, posted a joint statement on Twitter saying China had "deliberately sentenced him to death".
In Hong Kong, about 70 supporters of Liu took to the streets to demand his immediate release on Tuesday, chanting slogans denouncing the Chinese government as a "murderer".

Dozens protested in Hong Kong on Tuesday over Liu's treatment in prison.
Human rights campaigners also demanded to know whether Liu received any medical treatment while he was in jail and why he was not given parole earlier.
"It's very difficult to understand why his illness is only being treated at the last stage," said Amnesty International's Patrick Poon.
Human Rights Watch's Sophie Richardson, citing two other cases of critics who died in detention, said the government "needs to be held to account for permitting yet another peaceful critic to fall gravely ill while unjustly detained".
She said China had a history of allowing "peaceful critics to become gravely ill and die in detention".
Among them are Tibetan monk Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who was 13 years into a life sentence for terrorism and separatism when he died in prison in July 2015.
Cao Shunli, a Chinese dissident, died in custody in March 2014 after being denied medical treatment for months.
Some said Liu's treatment heightened concerns over lesser-known activists still languishing in prison.
Liu's medical parole was not a humanitarian gesture, but rather a cynical attempt by authorities to avoid a backlash for allowing such a well-known rights defender to die behind bars.
Chen Guangcheng, a human-rights lawyer who fled to the US in 2012, said: "If Liu died in prison this would arouse the anger of the people and accelerate the demise of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]."

State Terrorism

Political murder: anger after terminally ill Chinese Nobel laureate released from prison
By Benjamin Haas in Hong Kong

An undated handout image of Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel peace prize winner. 

China’s dissident community has expressed anger, shock and sadness that the country’s best-known political prisoner – the democracy activist and Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo – has been transferred to hospital after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.
Liu, 61, had been serving an 11-year prison sentence for inciting subversion of state power. 

His lawyer, Mo Shaoping, who has been in contact with Liu’s family, said he was now in the late stages of disease. 

Another of Liu’s lawyers, Shang Baojun, said he had been diagnosed on 23 May.

Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo released from Chinese prison with late-stage cancer

“This type of late-stage cancer is very difficult to treat. It would have been easier if it was discovered sooner,” Shang said. 

“It’s extremely serious.”
News of Liu’s diagnosis was met with an outpouring of anger from activists in China and abroad.
“This is simply a political murder, this is how the Communist party deals with its enemies, a prisoner of conscience dying just outside a jail cell,” said Hu Jia, a fellow activist who has known Liu for more than a decade and previously collaborated with him. 

“I’ve been to prison in China. The medical care is terrible and I’m sure China’s leaders were hoping for this outcome.”
In a rare statement, the Norwegian Nobel committee, which awarded Liu the prize in 2010, said: “Liu Xiaobo has fought a relentless struggle in favour of democracy and human rights in China and has already paid a heavy price. Chinese authorities carry a heavy responsibility if Liu Xiaobo, because of his imprisonment, has been denied necessary medical treatment.”

Liu is being treated by a team of eight doctors at the First Hospital of China Medical University in the north-eastern city of Shenyang, according to the provincial prison bureau, which also confirmed his medical parole.
Friends and family worry he may not receive the best care. 

He has asked to return to his home of Beijing to undergo medical treatment, but the authorities refused permission to do so.
“It adds injury to insult that Liu Xiaobo, who should never have been put in prison in the first place, has been diagnosed with a grave illness,” said Patrick Poon, a China researcher at Amnesty International. 

“The Chinese authorities should immediately ensure that Liu Xiaobo receives adequate medical care, effective access to his family and that he and all others imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights are immediately and unconditionally released.”
Liu was arrested in 2008 after writing a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08, in which he called for an end to one-party rule and improvements in human rights. 

Following a year in detention and a two-hour trial, he was sentenced to 11 years in December 2009.
Little has been heard from him since, and he was represented by an empty chair during the 2010 the Nobel peace prize award ceremony. 

In his absence, Liu’s final statement to the court entitled “I have no enemies” was read in place of his speech.
“Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation’s progress toward freedom and democracy,” one section read. 

“That is why I hope to be able to transcend my personal experiences as I look upon our nation’s development and social change, to counter the regime’s hostility with utmost goodwill, and to dispel hatred with love.”
Zhang Xuezhong, a legal scholar and human rights activist, said Liu had been a symbol of hope for many years.
“It’s known that Liu Xiaobo and his family have made a tremendous sacrifice for the cause of freedom and democracy for China,” said Zhang. 

“This is unfortunate news for him and his family, and it’s a blow to China’s democracy movement, as so many people have placed hope in him, and rightfully so.”

Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The Chinese government’s culpability for wrongfully imprisoning Liu Xiaobo is deepened by the fact that they released him only when he became gravely ill.”
A foreign ministry spokesman was “not aware of the situation” when asked about Liu’s case at a daily press briefing.
A literary critic and scholar, Liu was previously jailed for two years in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests and subsequent massacre.
His wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest since her husband won his Nobel prize and has reportedly suffered from depression and insomnia because of her isolation. 

She has not been formally charged with a crime despite spending the past seven years confined to her apartment.
Any meetings between the couple, usually one a month, are watched over by prison guards who interrupt any conversation they deem unsavoury. 

They are not allowed to touch.
More than 1,400 political dissidents are detained in China, according to a US congressional database, but the number is probably higher because information about topics deemed sensitive by the ruling Communist party is heavily censored.
Since coming to power in 2012, Xi Jinping has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on civil society, including the arrest of feminist activists, human rights lawyers and book publishers.
Liu’s 2010 Nobel prize infuriated the Chinese government and relations with Norway quickly deteriorated. 

Normal relations were only restored in December 2016, when the country said it “attaches high importance to China’s core interests and major concerns, will not support actions that undermine them, and will do its best to avoid any future damage to the bilateral relations”.