Foreign doctors say Liu can travel
CHINA: 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.
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.’’
Liu was jailed in 2009 for ‘‘inciting subversion of state power’’ after calling for sweeping political reforms.
He became only the third person to receive a Nobel Peace award while being imprisoned by his own government in 2010.
The former professor was a veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which ended when Chinese leaders sent tanks into central Beijing, killing hundreds, possibly more than a thousand demonstrators.
He was represented by an empty chair at his Nobel ceremony in Oslo in 2010. – Telegraph Group