Nobel laureate's organs failing, China says

In this file image taken from a Jan 6, 2008, video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview in his home in Beijing, China. The hospital treating ailing Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu says his condition is now critical and doctors are in "active rescue" mode for China's best-known political prisoner.
In this file image taken from a Jan 6, 2008, video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview in his home in Beijing, China. The hospital treating ailing Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu says his condition is now critical and doctors are in "active rescue" mode for China's best-known political prisoner.

BEIJING -- Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo's condition is now life-threatening because of multiple organ failure, and his family has opted against inserting a breathing tube needed to keep him alive, the Chinese hospital treating him said Wednesday.

Liu, who has advanced liver cancer, is suffering from respiratory and renal failure as well as septic shock, the First Hospital of China Medical University said on its website.

The hospital said doctors informed Liu's family of the need for a tracheostomy to keep him alive, but they declined. Liu and his family, who are being closely guarded in the hospital, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Liu, China's most prominent political prisoner, was diagnosed in May and was transferred to the hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang. He is accompanied by a small group of family members that includes his wife, the poet and artist Liu Xia, but is kept out of the sight of supporters and the media.

Exiled Chinese dissident Yu Jie, a close friend of the couple, said he was "very sad and angry" at the deterioration in Liu's condition.

"In front of the world, Liu Xiaobo is being murdered by [Chinese President] Xi Jinping. Yet not a single Western political figure is condemning Xi Jinping," Yu said.

"This is a sign of the complete failure of Western human-rights diplomacy," he said.

Liu's declining health has become the subject of international attention, with supporters and several foreign governments calling for him to be freed on humanitarian grounds.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seiberton, told reporters Wednesday that China should allow Liu to leave the country for medical treatment.

President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan tweeted a similar appeal Wednesday, joining a chorus of pleas already made by the U.S., Britain, France and several other governments.

Two foreign doctors, one German and one American, reported Sunday after visiting Liu that he had expressed a desire to leave for the West. They said it would be possible to evacuate him safely but that it needed to happen soon.

Beijing has rebuffed those calls, saying Liu is too sick to travel and is already receiving the best care possible. China has accused other countries of politicizing the writer's case and interfering in China's internal affairs.

"We hope relevant countries can respect China's judicial sovereignty and not use such [an] individual case to interfere in China's domestic affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a briefing Wednesday.

Liu, a former professor who helped negotiate with the military for the safe passage of students during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, was convicted in 2009 of inciting subversion for his role in the "Charter 08" movement calling for political changes. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later while serving his sentence.

Chinese prisons are notorious for their harsh conditions, and it's common for released prisoners to return to society in a weakened state.

China has in the past released high-profile dissidents on medical grounds and immediately exiled them to the U.S., notably veteran democracy campaigner Wei Jingsheng in 1997 and a leader of the 1989 student pro-democracy protests, Wang Dan, in 1998.

But Xi's government has adopted a tougher line in such matters, prohibiting many of its critics from traveling abroad as it pursues a campaign against dissent.

A Section on 07/13/2017

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