In this file image taken from Jan 6, 2008, video, Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview in his home in Beijing
Two foreign specialists who visited Liu Xiaobo said yesterday that the cancer-stricken Nobel Peace Prize laureate would be able to safely travel abroad for treatment, apparently contradicting statements by Chinese experts who say a medical evacuation would be unsafe.
The American and German doctors, who saw Liu on Saturday, issued a joint statement saying that their home institutions — the University of Heidelberg and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas — have agreed to accept Liu, but that any evacuation would have to take place “as quickly as possible.”
Liu, China’s most prominent political dissident, was diagnosed in May with late-stage liver cancer while serving an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion by advocating sweeping political reforms that would end China’s one-party rule.
The differing opinions about the feasibility of Liu traveling could further complicate the tug-of-war over the 61-year-old activist. For weeks, family and supporters have asked for Liu to be fully released and allowed to receive treatment abroad, arguing that authorities are keeping him in China only out of political considerations.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has maintained that Liu is receiving the best treatment possible at the First Hospital of China Medical University in the northern city of Shenyang. Chinese state media have labeled Liu a convicted criminal, and the government has warned other countries to stay out of China’s internal affairs.
Following international criticism, China allowed the two foreign experts, Dr. Markus W. Buchler of Heidelberg University and Dr. Joseph Herman of the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, to visit Liu.
Buchler and Herman said in their statement yesterday that they “acknowledged” the quality of care Liu has received in Shenyang. But they said that Liu expressed a desire to leave China, and that they judged that he “can be safely transported with appropriate medical evacuation care and support.”
Already accused of letting an imprisoned Nobel laureate fall terminally ill on its watch, China’s government faces a public relations disaster whether Liu stays in the country or goes abroad. By deeming Liu physically able to travel, the two foreign experts effectively eliminated a key reason the government has put forward to justify why Liu cannot leave, said Hu Jia, a Chinese dissident.
“There are no technical obstacles to his leaving, if only the Communist Party is willing to open the cage,” Hu said, adding that Beijing is afraid of letting its most potent opposition symbol go abroad as long as he is able to speak to the media.
“As long as he can still talk, the global media will report and transmit his message to the world,” he said. “Every sound he utters will be recorded as a force for changing China.”
Shang Baojun, a former lawyer for Liu who remains close to the family, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Liu was coherent enough during the visit with the foreign doctors to say that he wanted to go abroad for treatment, preferably to Germany, although the U.S. would also be fine. At times, Liu was lucid enough to communicate in English, Shang said.
The hospital itself released a brief online statement late Saturday that quoted an unnamed Chinese expert as saying that it would be unsafe for Liu to travel abroad. The hospital has previously said that Liu’s liver function is deteriorating, and that blood clots are forming in his left leg and could potentially travel to the brain or the lungs, leading to death. Gerry Shih, AP
