Chinese Hospital Invites Cancer Experts to Help Treat Nobel Laureate
By AUSTIN RAMZYJULY 4, 2017
A Chinese hospital treating the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has invited cancer experts from the United States, Germany
and other nations to join his team of doctors, judicial officials said in a brief statement Wednesday.
News of his health problems renewed calls for his unconditional release,
and the Chinese authorities have faced questions of whether the cancer could have been diagnosed earlier, or whether poor treatment contributed to his declining health.
He was in prison in 2010 when the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded him the peace prize for "his long
and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." He became the third person to win the prize while under government detention.
Overseas Chinese-language news sites have carried videos, apparently released by the judicial authorities,
that show Mr. Liu receiving treatment, discussing his care with doctors and seeing his wife, Liu Xia.
Ms. Liu has been under house arrest since her husband was awarded the Nobel Prize
and has faced her own health problems, including depression and heart disease, friends say.
Mr. Liu, 61, was found to have advanced liver cancer in May and granted parole to move from prison to a hospital in Shenyang in late June.
He had been sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power"
by helping organize the Charter 08 manifesto, which called for democratic reforms in China.
