“A poet, scholar, and courageous advocate, Liu Xiaobo dedicated his life to the pursuit of democracy and liberty”, Spicer said in a statement.
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“There’s an incredible sense of urgency about how best to help her”, said Sophie Richardson, the China director of Human Rights Watch.
McCain said that the Chinese government’s delay in his treatment was the last “barbaric” violation of Liu’s human rights.
The judicial bureau in Shengyang announced the cause of death as “multiple organ failure”.
The Chinese authorities refused to allow him to leave the country to receive medical care overseas, although an worldwide campaign had been urging this. “She needs to go somewhere free so that she can preserve her health, otherwise the consequences could be unthinkable”.
“I can no longer get in touch with Liu Xia”, Shang said.
The Global Times said in Friday’s editorial that Liu lived a “tragic life” because he sought to confront Chinese mainstream society with outside support.
Ma said Tsai and the DPP had “lifted the deceptive veil” of maintaining the status quo in cross-strait relations and that the repeated attacks were an attempt to pull ties back to “tensity and turbulence”.
Rights groups and Western governments have mourned Liu Xiaobo’s death and also called for authorities to grant his wife and the rest of his family freedom of movement. “Judging from his writings and speech, what he had illustrated is more of a social idealism of humanities”, said Zhang Lifan, a prominent Chinese historian. It is unclear whether Jagland’s tweet was a reaction to the Chinese statement.
Despite that action, and a controversial television appearance in which he cast doubt on reports of a massacre in the square, Liu was labeled a “black hand” and jailed for his role in the protests.
At a regular press briefing Friday afternoon, Geng said China has conveyed its “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to all governments and global entities that commented on Liu’s death, including the U.S. and the UN’s human rights commission. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, recalling Xiaobo as a nobel laureate would be degrading the coveted award granted to activists for their excellence in public life.
Inevitably, some in the West will think that honoring Liu Xiaobo is an act of offense against China (or, more practically, a potential risk to relationships with the government).
Liu’s United States lawyer, Jared Genser, who had arranged a medical evacuation for the laureate that was never used, had kinder words for the American efforts. Solberg had also earlier refused to comment on his terminal illness, leaving it to the foreign ministry to merely state that Norway viewed Liu’s illness as “sad”. ‘The authorities consider Liu Xiaobo guilty, but history will prove he is not’.
His last arrest was as a result of a document he drafted alongside other intellectuals – the Charter 08 was a pro-democracy manifesto that called for “the democratization of Chinese politics through the establishment of a new constitution, greater freedom of expression, an independent judiciary and an end to one-party rule”.
“He said this prize should go to all the victims of June 4”, Liu Xia said, after she was allowed to visit him in jail following the announcement of the prize.
The circumstances recalled the situation in 2010 when Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while serving an 11-year sentence for “subversion” – online searches for his name and references to his award, including the empty chair that represented him at the Oslo ceremony, were blocked.
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“Now (that) he no longer has a body, his message is actually more powerful”.
