On Friday, December 28 — the birthday of jailed Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo — a group of activists made a daring visit to the residence of his wife, Liu Xia, currently under house arrest.
You can watch them in the above video, uploaded yesterday to the YouTube account of Hu Jia, activist/dissident and director of the June Fourth Heritage and Culture Association. Hu writes that he and Hao Jian, Liu Di and Xu Youyu, among others, arrived at about 9 pm and basically overpowered a surprised guard. They stayed with an astonished and obviously apprehensive Liu Xia for three minutes before willfully taking their leave, just before “large quantities” of security personnel rushed up to intercept.
It’s a gripping and emotional video. Check it out.
UPDATE, 1/1, 11:21 am: Via AFP:
[Hu Jia] later told AFP that after leaving the apartment the group were detained momentarily by the guards but eventually allowed to leave.
“The video is all about fear and anxiety,” Hu said. “She has already lost a lot of hope. The authorities are making her fearful. What she is afraid of is her family will come under pressure.
“Imagine people come to visit you after two years under illegal house arrest and all she feels is fear that the authorities will crack down further.”
…”For two years, they have only allowed Liu Xia to visit her parents and go see Liu Xiaobo, no one else. She is like a political prisoner, when she meets her husband it is a meeting between prisoners,” Hu said.
“I went to visit her as friend, I have the right to visit her. The authorities know who I am, I have done nothing wrong. Her house arrest is illegal.”
(H/T Austin Ramzy via Alicia)
