Friends of the dissident who would become China’s first Nobel Peace Prize laureate had for decades urged him to leave the country that sent him to prison t
BEIJING/SHENYANG, CHINA – Friends of the dissident who would become China’s first 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 asylum abroad after the 1989 Tiananmen prodemocracy protests, he declined. Urged again in the 2000s to leave after needling the government with his essays, he again said no. He might be safer overseas, Liu told friends, but he would sacrifice the moral authority of a campaigner who persisted under authoritarian Communist Party rule.
Then in March, one development finally broke the resolve of China’s most famous political prisoner: his wife’s declining 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 suffering heart attacks. Once Liu, serving an 11-year prison sentence, found out about her condition, 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 after a brief battle with advanced liver cancer, friends and supporters are now concerned that Liu Xia may never regain her freedom. Foreign officials, including the U. S. ambassador to China, European Council leaders and others, have called on Beijing to release Liu Xia, who was never convicted of any crimes.
City government information official Zhang Qingyang said Liu Xiaobo was cremated Saturday morning, in accordance with his relatives’ wishes and local customs.
Liu Xia was present, and was later given the ashes, Zhang told a news conference in Shenyang.
Zhang said, according to his understanding, “Liu Xia is free.” But he did not reveal her whereabouts.
“We want Liu Xia to avoid more trouble, ” he added. “I believe the relevant departments will protect Liu Xia’s rights according to the law.”
Back in March, before his cancer diagnosis, Liu Xiaobo’s change of heart prompted a round of talks between Chinese authorities and the German government in an effort to get Liu Xia out of China, possibly to Germany, for treatment of a heart problem, said Liao Yiwu, a close family friend and Berlin-based writer.
“We were encouraged by the negotiations’ progress, ” Liao said. “But then Liu Xiaobo’s situation exploded suddenly in June.” Liao said he and the couple thought they could argue that some cancer treatments could only be performed in Germany.
