Australia urges China to release dissident’s widow

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia on Sunday called for China to lift curbs on the widow of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo who died of liver cancer in custody last week.

Liu Xiaobo, 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 China.

His wife, Liu Xia, was at the hospital as his health deteriorated over the past couple of weeks, but has been under effective house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

“We call upon the Chinese government to lift any travel restrictions on his wife and to release her from house detention,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

On Saturday, Zhang Qingyang, a Chinese official in the northeastern city of Shenyang, said Liu’s widow was “currently free,” adding that, as a Chinese citizen, her rights would be protected, but he did not reveal her whereabouts.

The comments are likely to irk China, which has lodged “stern representations” with Western countries that made remarks about Liu Xiaobo, and add fuel to its testy relationship with Australia.

Australia depends on China as its largest trading partner, but Beijing is suspicious of Canberra’s close military relationship with Washington.

Suspicion of China has been growing in Australia of late, fed by concerns that Beijing is using its growing influence to shift public opinion on sensitive policy issues and stifle criticism.

Bishop turned her attention elsewhere on Sunday by criticizing comments by US President Donald Trump on French first lady Brigitte Macron’s appearance.

“You’re in such good shape,” Trump was filmed on Thursday telling her during his first state visit to France.

“I wonder if she could say the same of him?” Bishop said during the TV interview when asked whether she would be flattered or offended if the comment were directed at her.

“I’d be taken aback, I think. It’s a rather interesting comment to make,” she said.

Bishop declined further comment on the Paris remark, but added an unprompted observation on Trump’s use of social media, saying she wouldn’t “run a commentary on his Twitter account.”

The criticism follows an acrimonious January telephone call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, when the American hung up after 25 minutes rather than the scheduled hour, according to the Washington Post.

In June, the relationship between the two countries hit the spotlight again after the release of a leaked tape of Turnbull mocking Trump at an off-the-record media event.

But the two leaders “get along great,” Trump had declared in May, following his first-face-toface meeting with Turnbull.