Announcement follows visit by foreign doctors who said Liu Xiaobo could and wanted to travel to the US or Germany
The hospital treating Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo says he is too ill to travel overseas for treatment, saying the Nobel Prize Laureate is in critical condition.
The hospital said Liu’s blood pressure is falling and he has an increasingly swollen stomach and partial intestinal obstruction and other complications. Liu was recently moved to the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang from jail after he was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer.
In 2009, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power, ” after helping write a petition known as “Charter 08” that called for political reforms in China.
Since news of his terminal illness surfaced and he was released on medical parole under tight security, calls for his treatment abroad have been building.
On Sunday, two foreign doctors who met with Liu said he could be moved abroad safely for treatment and that he wanted to go to either Germany or the United States.
The doctors added any move needs to happen soon. But it appears likely China will not budge.
Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry continued to ask other countries “respect its sovereignty” and said speaking out about Liu’s treatment overseas is “interference in its internal affairs.”
Family’s communication blocked
Rights groups say Liu’s wife, Liu Xia and his relatives have been allowed to be with him, but are not allowed to communicate with the outside world.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democracy reports Liu’s elder brother Liu Xiaoguang and his wife recently visited the hospital to check on the ailing dissident’s condition. But for days, the police have kept the couple under tight watch, and they have not been able to reach out to others. The couple was also pressured to sign a statement endorsing the opinion of Chinese doctors that “it is unsafe to move Liu” abroad, the group said.
China also appears to be trying to use the internet to forward its narrative.
