Chinese dissident Liu dies days after release from jail

BEIJING: Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, China’s most well-known political dissident, died on Thursday days after he was abruptly released from detention following the revelation that he was suffering from terminal liver cancer.

Liu was a key leader of the prodemocracy Tiananmen movement that left an unknown number of Chinese, mostly students, dead. He was repeatedly jailed through his life.

The university professor and author-turned-human rights and pro-democracy activist was 61 and is said to have died in a hospital in northeastern China. State media announced his death late on Thursday.

Liu’s wife Liu Xia, a poet, too was kept under house arrest for several years.

His critical writings and opinions in the 1980s culminated with his participation in the Tiananmen Square movement.

In 2009, Liu was charged with subversion and jailed after he called for greater democracy and political freedom in China.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 but wasn’t allowed to travel to Oslo, Norway, to collect the award. Furious that Liu had been given the prize, China all but downgraded diplomatic ties with Norway.

Twittter exploded after news of Liu’s death was released officially, with a barrage of updates about his life and legacy being exchanged online.

China, which has about 700 million people with access to the internet and the world’s largest number of social media users, kept things silent – not a single word on Liu was allowed to slip through the censors.

Many Chinese citizens, however, found a way to share condolences in an indirect manner without using his name.

No official reason was given at the time of his recent release but it is possible that Liu was freed because of his deteriorating health and because the authorities didn’t want him to die under their watch.

Even his release was marked by controversy over his medical treatment. It was reported that Liu wanted to go abroad for treatment. Two western doctors allowed by the Chinese government to visit Liu said he could travel abroad for treatment if permitted by authorities.