Jailed Chinese dissident given medical parole

BEIJING — Imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate and dissident Liu Xiaobo has been transferred to a hospital after being diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer, his former lawyer said Monday.

The deteriorating health of China’s best-known political prisoner was immediately met with dismay by the country’s beleaguered community of rights activists and lawyers, who called it a blow to the democracy movement.

Liu, 61, is receiving treatment at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang, lawyer Mo Shaoping told The Associated Press. Liu was diagnosed on May 23 and prison authorities then gave him a medical parole, though it was not clear exactly when he was transferred to the hospital, Mo said.

Liu, a literary critic and China’s most prominent democracy campaigner, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 after being convicted of inciting state subversion for writing and disseminating Charter 08, a manifesto calling for an end to single-party rule.

The following year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norway-based Nobel committee, which cheered China’s fractured, persecuted dissident community and brought calls from the U.S., Germany and others for Liu’s release, but also infuriated Beijing.

The Liaoning Provincial Prison Administrative Bureau, which oversees the prison where Liu was incarcerated, confirmed in a statement on its website Monday that Liu had received a medical parole. It said the China Medical University No. 1 Affiliated Hospital in Shenyang formed a team of eight nationally known experts in the field of tumors that drew up a treatment plan for Liu.

It was unclear exactly what treatment Liu was receiving but as of 10 days ago his condition was stable, Mo said, citing Liu’s family.