Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo dies at 61
BEIJING: As Liu Xiaobo braced for his verdict, the late Chinese democracy activist penned a moving statement declaring his love for his wife while telling his jailers: “I have no enemies.”
But the authorities were unmoved by the conciliatory words from a writer who had been a thorn in their side for years, and they sentenced him to 11 years in prison on Christmas 2009 for “subversion”.
Liu’s punishment generated international condemnation and turned him into the living symbol of the Communist government’s intolerance for dissent until his death yesterday at 61.
Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year after his sentence, infuriating Chinese authorities, who kept him in custody even after he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in late May and taken from prison to a hospital.
At the De- cember 2010 Nobel ceremony in Oslo, his statement titled “I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement” was read by an actress, with an empty chair representing the imprisoned activist, who was also known for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.
Liu wrote that, even though the authorities deprived him of his freedom, he hoped “to counter the regime’s hostility with utmost goodwill, and to dispel hatred with love”.
Liu was the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize and one of only three people to have won it while detained by their government.
Liu was arrested in late 2008 after co-authoring Charter 08, a widely circulated online petition that called for political reform in the Communist-ruled nation.
The bold manifesto, which was signed by more than 10,000 people after it went online, calls for the protection of basic human rights and the reform of China’s one-party system. AFP