NPR’s Scott Simon remembers Liu Xiaobo and the principles he stood for in China, and wonders how Americans and American institutions will respond to his death.
This week President Trump said of China’s president Xi Jinping, “Well, he’s a friend of mine. I have great respect for him. We’ve gotten to know each other very well. A great leader… I like being with him a lot. And he’s a very special person.”
The president spoke at a press conference with President Macron of France, just hours after Liu Xiaobo had died. Liu, who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, was suffering from late stage liver cancer in a hospital in northeast China, after the government refused to let him leave the country for treatment.
Liu Xiaobo was 61 and had been imprisoned since 2008 for “inciting subversion of state power.” He was one of the authors of the Charter 08 declaration that called for democracy and free speech in China, and was sent to prison even before that statement could be published.
Liu Xiaobo led a hunger strike during the Tiananmen Square protests in which hundreds or perhaps even thousands of people died when Chinese troops beat, shot and crushed demonstrators during protests in the early morning hours of June 4,1989.
