CHINA INVITES EXPERTS TO TREAT NOBEL LAUREATE LIU

The Chinese hospital caring for cancer-stricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has decided to invite US, German and other foreign experts to treat him in China following international pressure to let him go abroad.

The legal bureau of Shenyang – the northeastern city where Liu is being treated – said in a statement on Wednesday the invitation was made “at the request” of Liu’s family.

China has faced global calls to give the democracy campaigner the option to get treatment abroad since it emerged last month that he was transferred from prison to a hospital after he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for “subversion” after calling for democratic reform. He was awarded the Nobel in 2010, with an empty chair representing him at the ceremony in Oslo.

The invitation of foreign experts came after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Berlin on Tuesday for a state visit and the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday.

“It seems that the Chinese authorities are responding to international pressure by making such arrangements,” Amnesty International’s China researcher Patrick Poon said.

But, Poon added, Liu and his wife, the poet Liu Xia, have made it clear that they want him to be treated abroad.

The Shenyang legal bureau said Monday that Liu was receiving chemotherapy and the “most advanced” drugs.

He has also received traditional Chinese medicine “as a supplementary treatment”, the bureau said, adding that the Liu family has been “satisfied” with the care he has been receiving and have “expressed their appreciation”. AFP