Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Prize laureate and one of China's finest, died tonight in a hospital in Shenyang, Liaoning province, having never been officially released from his 11-year sentence for state subversion. He served more than seven of those years behind bars.
Liu Xia, who has never been charged with a crime, has been imprisoned in her home since 2010 because her husband happens to be a Nobel Peace Prize recipient currently serving an 11-year sentence for "subversion of state power." That she clearly needs medical attention for worsening mental health makes no difference to the authorities, who insist on punishing her for the perceived sins of Liu Xiaobo.
I've written about Liu Xia's house arrest before, the disgrace and heartbreak of it, forced into isolation for the past three years because her husband happens to be Liu Xiaobo, the activist and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient who's currently in a Chinese jail.
In the above video, shot last month, we get a rare glimpse into her world, bounded physically -- no metaphor needed -- by the wall of her Beijing apartment. But as she reads two poems, "Untitled" and "Drinking," it's apparent she occupies another place whose boundaries are less defined, depthless.
A group of Chinese dissidents and exiles ran naked on a chilly night outside the Stockholm Concert Hall on Tuesday, December 10, and published a declaration undersigned by Liao Yiwu (pictured above), Bei Ling, Wang Yiliang, Meng Huang, and Wang Juntao. As translated by China Change, the declaration begins:
The New York Times's Austin Ramzy has a story you should read about Liu Xia, painter/poet/artist and wife of (as routinely noted) jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo. The entire thing is worth your time, but we'd like to highlight a letter Liu Xia, who remains under house arrest in Beijing, wrote to an American friend in July. In a word, it's heartbreaking.
The wife of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was seen in public for the first time in more than two and a half years today as she attended the trial of her brother, 43-year-old Liu Hui, who has been charged with fraud. According to Tania Branigan of the Guardian:
On Saturday, South China Morning Post reported that two Hong Kong journalists and activist Yang Kuang were beaten on Thursday outside the home of Liu Xia, the wife of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo. We last heard from Liu Xia, who is under house arrest, when activists pushed past security guards and filmed their... Read more »
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.
Liu Xia has been under house arrest ever since her husband, Liu Xiaobo, won the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago. Her location isn’t exactly a secret though, so AP reporters staked out outside her house, then walked in while the guards were out to lunch. In her first public interview in 26 months, Liu said, “We... Read more »
