China rejects US criticism over Nobel laureate Liu’s treatment
BEIJING: China on Tuesday rejected criticism over its treatment of cancerstricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo after the United States urged Beijing to give the paroled activist freedom to move and to choose his own doctors.
The US Embassy in Beijing joined a growing chorus of Chinese and foreign human rights lawyers and activists demanding the unconditional release of the democracy campaigner amid dismay at his condition.
With three years left to serve in his 11-year sentence, the 61-yearold was granted medical parole days after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer on May 23, his lawyer Mo Shaoping said. He is in hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang and being treated by top specialists, according to prison authorities. The US Embassy said it was “working to gather more information” about Liu’s legal and medical status after authorities confirmed his transfer from prison to hospital.
“We call on the Chinese authorities to not only release Mr Liu but also to allow his wife Ms Liu Xia out of house arrest,” spokeswoman Mary Beth Polley said. But China’s foreign ministry hit back, saying “no country has the right to interfere and make irresponsible remarks on Chinese internal affairs”. The writer was sentenced in 2009 for “subversion” after spearheading a bold petition for democratic reforms. His wife, a poet, has been under house arrest since 2010, when her husband was awarded the Nobel peace prize in absentia.
She suffered a heart attack in 2014, when she was also diagnosed with depression. A video circulating among their supporters shows Liu Xia sobbing during a video call with a friend and saying her husband “can’t have surgery, can’t do chemotherapy”.
Mo said that Liu Xia was able to see her husband every day at the hospital.
“But police are always posted inside the hospital room. With the exception of a few relatives, Liu Xiaobo is not able to have contact with anyone in the outside world, including his lawyers,” Mo said. Friends who tried to visit Liu at the hospital were unable to find him, the lawyer said.
Polley said China should provide the couple with “protection and freedom such as freedom of movement and access to medical care of his choosing, to which they are entitled under the Chinese constitution and legal system and international commitments”.
Asked about the US statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said “everybody is equal in front of the law” in China and “any other country should respect China’s judicial sovereignty and shouldn’t use individual cases to interfere.”