Doctors say Liu can be taken abroad for treatment
BEIJING: Ailing Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo wants to go to either Germany or the United States for treatment and can be moved safely but it needs to happen soon, two foreign doctors who visited him said yesterday.
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 the city of Shenyang to be treated for late-stage liver cancer.
On Saturday, two doctors from the US and Germany visited him to assess his condition and consult on his treatment, after being invited by the hospital.
“Liu Xiaobo and his family have requested that the remainder of his care be provided i n Germany or the United States,” Joseph Herman of t he University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, and Markus Buchler of the University of Heidelberg said in a joint statement.
“While a degree of risk always exists in the movement of any patient, both physicians believe Mr Liu can be safely transported with appropriate medical evacuation care and support. However, the medical evacuation would have to take place as quickly as possible.”
The doctors acknowledged the quality of care he has received and said they agreed with the diagnosis of primary liver cancer.
“The physicians have recommended Mr Liu receive palliative supportive care. Additional options may exist, including interventional procedures and radiotherapy,” they said.
The University of Heidelberg and MD Anderson have both agreed to accept Liu for treatment and both are prepared to offer him the best care possible, they said.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Liu would be allowed to leave.
The hospital said on Saturday moving him would not be safe.
It is not clear if the foreign doctors are still in Shenyang.
Calls have grown from rights groups and western governments for China to allow Liu to travel with his wife, Liu Xia, to be treated overseas.
A source with knowledge of the consultation and friend of the family said late on Saturday that Liu had told the foreign doctors he hoped to go abroad for treatment, but the government had been very clear they would not allow this.
In a brief statement earlier yesterday, the hospital said Liu was finding it difficult to eat and he was being given nutritional support and pain medication.