Friends of jailed democracy activist and Nobel laureate say they are losing hope that he will be allowed to seek cancer treatment overseas

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Friends of China’s most famous political prisoner, the Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, said they feared he was entering his final hours on Thursday, as the White House renewed its call for the dissident’s release.

“Liu Xiaobo is on his deathbed,” said the writer and activist Wen Kejian, who is among those who have been blocked by authorities from visiting their dying friend.

“Although we know the patient and his family are suffering, we are praying that Xiaobo can hold on for a few more days,” he added.

The hospital where Liu is being treated in north-east China issued a bleak, though contested, update on the condition of the 61-year-old dissident on Wednesday afternoon.

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In a statement, it said Liu, who was serving an 11-year prison sentence when he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in May, was “close to death”. His kidneys and liver were shutting down and he was suffering from respiratory failure, the hospital claimed.

Liu, who is reportedly being held under guard, has asked to be flown out of China for treatment in either Germany or the United States. However, Beijing has so far refused to allow his exit from China, with critics accusing it of being afraid that he will use his final days to launch a last attack on its one-party system.

Some supporters question the accuracy of official reports about Liu’s health, suspecting they may be designed to bolster Beijing’s claim that Liu is unfit to leave China. “We simply don’t know to what extent this is professional medical reports and to what extent this is politically-manipulated information,” Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based activist for Human Rights Watch, told AFP.

Diplomatic voices told the Guardian they suspected Beijing was deliberately stalling attempts to transfer Liu overseas until it was no longer safe for medics to move him.

After visiting Liu last weekend, two foreign doctors announced – contrary to Chinese claims – that he was well enough to be taken overseas but it needed to happen as quickly as possible.

“There still is a window of opportunity [to move Liu] but it is rapidly closing,” the diplomatic sources said. “It seems the leadership … has decided to ride it out, irrespective of the considerable reputational damage.”

World leaders including the US president, Donald Trump, and the British prime minister, Theresa May, have yet to publicly raise Liu’s plight themselves, although their governments have issued statements on his case.

On Wednesday a White House spokeswoman said the US remained concerned that Liu and his family were not free to seek the medical treatment of his choosing and were being prevented from communicating with the outside world.

“We continue to call on the Chinese authorities to grant him full parole and to release his wife from house arrest and provide them the protections and freedoms, such as freedom of movement and access to appropriate medical care consistent with Chinese constitution, legal system, and international commitments,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.



A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Geng Shuang, again rejected foreign calls for Liu’s release on Thursday, repeating verbatim previously rebuttals. “We hope relevant countries can respect China’s judicial sovereignty and refrain from interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of an individual case.”

Wen Kejian said he felt anger and sadness at his friend’s plight and feared the campaign to free him had failed. “I no longer have any hope that Liu will be able to go abroad,” he said.

“I’m not giving up. I’m just looking at the harsh reality.”



Additional reporting by Wang Zhen

