Grace Larkin
English PEN
London, England
The writer, literary critic, Nobel laureate, and human rights activist, Liu Xiaobo, has died at the age of 61. Liu contracted cancer and was diagnosed while serving an 11-year prison sentence. He died on July 13, 2017, while still in Chinese custody.
China refused to allow him to travel overseas for adequate medical care. They instead moved him to a hospital in northeastern China, where he was reportedly treated in an isolated ward under armed guard, and held him incommunicado during his last days. Despite allowing two Western doctors in to assess Liu Xiaobo’s condition, the Chinese government insisted he was too weak to leave even after the doctors determined he was fit enough to travel for treatment. Berit Reiss-Andersenthe, the chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that the Chinese government “bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death.”
The outpouring of grief for Liu Xiaobo, support for his wife Liu Xia, as well as widespread criticism of the Chinese government has been largely censored.
Liu was intelligent and fearless. He dedicated his life to making China the country he hoped it could be: a place where human rights are respected. He is gone too soon.
Liu played a central role in the Tiananmen Square protests and then saved many lives by negotiating a safe retreat for students as the soldiers advanced on the square. He was jailed for almost two years for his role, but the experience made him become a lifelong activist and champion of democracy.
He later wrote about the protests: “That bloody dawn in 1989 […] showed me how shallow and self-centered I still was, taught me to recognize the warmth and the inner strength of love, and gave me new appreciation of what is most important in life. I knew from that time on I would forever be living with the guilt of a survivor and in awe of the souls of the dead” (from “Using Truth to Undermine a System of Lies,” 2003, translation by Eva S. Chou, in “No Enemies, No Hatred”).
Liu Xiaobo was an intellectual and activist. Although he was arrested a few more times, amounting to having spent almost a quarter of his life behind bars, he continued to fight bravely for human rights in China. He wrote several essays and gave interviews about China’s authoritarian regime.
In 2008, he was arrested for “inciting subversion of state power” for co-authoring a pro-democracy manifesto called “Charter 08,” which called for protection of human rights in China and an end to one-party rule.
In 2010, Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his career of non-violent human rights work in China. He was represented at the award ceremony by an empty chair. Directly after, his wife, poet and artist Liu Xia, was placed under house arrest where she remains today, despite never having been charged with or convicted of a crime. She has been under constant surveillance for the last few years, living in almost total isolation.
Liu Xiaobo prepared a statement for his 2009 trial, and it was read out at the Nobel ceremony. He writes about refusing hatred, his hopes for the future of China, and his unending love for his wife.
“Even if I were crushed into powder, I would still use my ashes to embrace you.”
Here are more of the beautiful words of Liu Xiaobo. Please read them: “I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement.”