China dissident Liu cancer is in final stages: Hospital

BEIJING: The Chinese hospital treating sick Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo said on Saturday that his cancer is in the final stages and that a German and U.S. doctor had seen him and offered “full approval” of their treatment of him.

Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition known as “Charter 08” calling for sweeping political reforms.

He was recently moved from jail to a hospital in China’s northeastern city of Shenyang to be treated for late-stage liver cancer and the hospital said it had invited doctors from the United States and Germany to help with Liu’s treatment.

In a short statement, the hospital said that Joseph M. Herman of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ after he helped write a petition known as ‘Charter 08’ calling for sweeping political reforms

in the United States and Markus W Büchler of Germany’s University of Heidelberg had seen Liu on Saturday afternoon, a consultation also attended by the Chinese experts treating him.

The team listened to his medical history, heard a report on his treatment, visited Liu and met his relatives and then discussed his illness, the hospital said.

“The U.S. and Germany experts fully approved of the treatment by the national experts group and what they had done,” it added.

The patient has received a high level of care, but he has late-stage liver cancer which has spread and is in its final stages, the hospital said, adding it is looking at medical options to raise his chances of survival.