Liú Xiǎobō 刘晓波 (Source: Nobelprize.org)
Eight years after being jailed for alleged political crimes, Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liú Xiǎobō 刘晓波 will be released on medical parole, the South China Morning Post reports.
Liu, 61, has terminal liver cancer, his lawyer told the Post. He is being treated outside the prison in Shenyang, Liaoning province.
As one of the authors of the pro-democracy Charter 08 Manifesto, Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”
According to Wikipedia, Liu is the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. One might assume that China would be proud, but the government has taken care to censor the news of Liu’s award and his incarceration.
China’s government has not acknowledged the prize, other than to advise international delegates in 2010 to boycott the award ceremony or face “consequences.”
Until Liu’s diagnosis in May, Beijing had refused international appeals to release him. His wife, Liú Xiá 刘霞, has also been under house arrest.
Liu was arrested and tried in 2009 on charges of subversion of state power.
[Originally published at my blog.]
Damn that's horrible. I'm surprised they are even letting him out to get treatment.
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It would be embarrassing to have him die in prison, I suppose. Same reason North Korea released that American kid. In both cases, it was too late to help either man.
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Good point. They would face a lot of criticism on the world stage if they let him die in prison.
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I remember hearing about this a while ago, and more recently, Ai weiwei's house arrest. The government must be really nervous when that's the most they can do.
Fingers crossed!
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The government hates Ai Weiwei for a lot of reasons. For one, he has blamed lax government regulations for allowing "tofu construction" of schools in Sichuan, which he says killed thousands of children during the 2008 earthquake.
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In China, I dare say that most of people don't know who 刘晓波 is. I saw this name at the first time when I was in HK. At that time I was even very surprised that he was rewarded "Nobel prize".
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The government censors have made sure any mention of his name is deleted from Sina Weibo, QQ, WeChat, etc. And search engine queries are all blocked. But some netizens have resorted to using puns on his name to spread the word.
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