China’s ailing Nobel winner in ‘critical condition’
beijing — China’s cancer-stricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo is in a critical condition, his hospital said on Monday, raising fears about his life a day after Western doctors said there was time to take him abroad.
The First Hospital of China Medical University in the northeastern city of Shenyang said Liu’s tumour has grown, his liver is bleeding and he has kidney problems.
The hospital said in a statement on its website that it is preparing to take the 61-year-old democracy advocate into emergency care if necessary, adding that “Liu’s family members have been informed of the above circumstances”.
But human rights activists decried the hospital statement as a delay tactic to prevent Liu from getting his wish of going abroad, where they say he would be free to speak out.
China has faced international pressure to grant its most prominent dissident complete freedom and let him leave the country since he was transferred from prison to the hospital after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in late May.
Two foreign cancer specialists examined Liu on Saturday and said he could still safely leave the country, contradicting their Chinese counterparts.
But US oncology expert Joseph Herman from the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center and German doctor Markus Buchler of Heidelberg University warned in a statement that “the medical evacuation would have to take place as quickly as possible”.
Human rights activists said the hospital’s latest statement shows the government is dragging its feet. —