Dying Chinese Nobel laureate ‘can travel abroad’

TWO foreign doctors who visited Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese Nobel Peace laureate, in his hospital bed said he could be “safely” transferred overseas for treatment, contradicting a previous statement from experts in China.

Mr Liu, who is perhaps the most well-known Chinese human rights campaigner and government critic, is said to be close to death after being transferred from prison to hospital last month suffering from late stage liver cancer. Chinese experts at the hospital in the north-eastern city of Shenyang said on Saturday that “the process of transferring the patient is unsafe”.

However, a German and American doctor who visited the 61-year-old said he could be moved, but warned the “medical evacuation would have to take place as quickly as possible”. The statement from the doctors added: “Liu Xiaobo and his family have requested that the remainder of his care be provided in Germany or the United States.”

Mr Liu was jailed in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after calling for sweeping political reforms in a manifesto entitled “Charter 08”.