Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winning rights activist Liu Xiaobo is being treated for late-stage liver cancer in a hospital in the city of Shenyang, Amnesty International said in a Tweet on Monday.

BEIJING: Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winning rights activist Liu Xiaobo is being treated for late-stage liver cancer in a hospital in the city of Shenyang, Amnesty International said in a Tweet on Monday.

Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power" after he helped write a petition known as "Charter 08" calling for sweeping political reforms in China.

In December 2010, Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism promoting human rights in China, causing China to freeze diplomatic ties with Norway. </s> BEIJING — China’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo is suffering from organ failure and shock as his condition deteriorates, the hospital treating him said Wednesday.

The hospital published the results of two tests that showed weak liver function even as Liu, who has terminal liver cancer, was receiving dialysis and plasma transfusions.

Liu remains in “active rescue” status, the First Hospital of China Medical University said in a brief statement on its website, without providing other details.

China’s most prominent political dissident was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer in May and transferred to the hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang where he is closely guarded.

Liu’s ailing health became the subject of international attention as supporters and several foreign governments called for him to be freed to go abroad for treatment.

On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert again urged China to parole Liu so he can receive medical care at a location of his choosing.

Beijing has rebuffed such calls, saying Liu is too sick to travel and already receiving the best care possible, and that other countries should not interfere in its internal affairs.

Liu was convicted in 2009 of inciting subversion for his role in the “Charter 08” movement calling for political reform. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later while in prison. </s> BEIJING (AP) - China's imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, is in life-threatening condition with multiple organ failure and his family has opted against inserting a breathing tube needed to keep him alive, the 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.

It 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.

China's most prominent political prisoner was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer in May and was transferred to the hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

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

On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert again urged China to parole Liu so he can receive medical care at a location of his choosing. Two foreign doctors, one German and one American, reported Sunday after visiting Liu that he wanted to leave for the West and it would be possible to evacuate him safely — but it needed to happen soon.

Beijing has rebuffed the 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.

Liu was convicted in 2009 of inciting subversion for his role in the "Charter 08" movement calling for political reform. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later while in prison.

Earlier on Wednesday, the hospital released the results of two tests that showed weak liver function. Liu is receiving dialysis and plasma transfusions. </s> Shenyang doctors say the Chinese dissident is suffering from a severely swollen stomach and poor kidney function.

The hospital treating ailing Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has said his condition is now critical and doctors are in "active rescue".

Shenyang's First Hospital of China Medical University said on Monday that Liu, who has late-stage liver cancer, is suffering from a severely swollen stomach, low blood pressure and poor kidney function.

Doctors also said Liu's tumour has grown and his liver is bleeding.

China has come under international pressure to let its most prominent dissident leave the country for treatment, but Chinese doctors said over the weekend that Liu was too sick to travel.

German and US doctors who visited Liu, however, said on Sunday that they deemed him strong enough to be evacuated. The doctors said any evacuation would have to take place "as quickly as possible" before Liu's condition deteriorates further.

READ MORE: Liu Xiaobo can be taken overseas, foreign medics say

Liu, 61, was diagnosed with liver cancer in May while serving an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion after he helped write a petition known as "Charter 08" calling for basic human rights and sweeping political reforms.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was recently moved from jail to a hospital in Shenyang to be treated.

Beijing has come under fire from rights groups over its treatment of Liu and for waiting until he became terminally ill to release him from prison. </s> BEIJING: China 's jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was granted medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last month, his lawyer told AFP on Monday."He's now being treated at a hospital in Shenyang (in northeast Liaoning province). He has no special plans. He is just receiving medical treatment for his illness," lawyer Mo Shaoping said, adding that he was diagnosed on May 23 and released days later. </s> China’s best-known political prisoner, the civil rights campaigner and Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has been released on medical parole after he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

Liu, 61, is in the late stages of the disease, said Mo Shaoping, his lawyer, who has been in contact with Liu’s family. Liu is being treated at a hospital in the north-eastern city of Shenyang, near where he was being held. Another of Liu’s lawyers, Shang Baojun, said he was diagnosed in May.

“This type of late-stage cancer is very difficult to treat, it would have been easier if it was discovered sooner,” Shang said. “It’s extremely serious.”

Liu was arrested in 2008 after penning a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08, where he called for an end to one-party rule and improvements in human rights. Following a year in detention and a two-hour trial, he was sentenced in December 2009 to 11 years in prison for inciting subversion of state power.

Little has been heard from him since. When he was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2010 he was represented by an empty chair.

Liu Xia, his wife, has been under house arrest since her husband won and has reportedly suffered from depression due to her isolation. She has not been formally charged with a crime despite her nearly seven years in detention. Liu Xia may not know her husband is sick, Mo said, as he has been unable to contact her.

A literary critic and scholar, Liu was previously jailed for two years in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests and subsequent massacre.



“Adding injury to insult, Liu Xiaobo has been diagnosed with a grave illness in prison, where he should never have been put in the first place,” said Patrick Poon, a researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong.

“The Chinese authorities should immediately ensure that Liu Xiaobo receives adequate medical care, effective access to his family and that he and all others imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights are immediately and unconditionally released.”

“The authorities should immediately and unconditionally lift all restrictions on his wife Liu Xia and let the two reunite as soon as possible,” Poon added.



The Shanghai-based legal scholar and human rights activist Zhang Xuezhong told Associated Press that Liu and has family had made a “tremendous sacrifice” for the cause of freedom and democracy in China.

“This is unfortunate news for him and his family, and it’s a blow to China’s democracy movement, as so many people have placed hope in him, and rightfully so,” Zhang said. “His life is so important that I think he should get the best possible treatment with full knowledge of his family, even if it means some compromises [with the government],” he added.

Liu’s brother-in-law was jailed in 2013 for fraud over a property dispute, but his lawyers claimed the case was politically motivated.

The Norwegian Nobel committee awarded Liu the peace prize for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.



“Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China,” the committee said in 2010.

'Your Lifelong Prisoner' – Liu Xiaobo's poem from prison Read more

The prize infuriated the Chinese government and relations with Norway quickly deteriorated. Normal relations were only restored in December 2016, when the country said it “attaches high importance to China’s core interests and major concerns, will not support actions that undermine them, and will do its best to avoid any future damage to the bilateral relations”.

In 2015 the writers’ campaign group PEN International released a statement saying that it stood in “continued solidarity” with Liu, who was president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, and Liu Xia. The statement was signed by a number of high-profile writers, including Margaret Atwood and Ian Rankin.

Last year, in an effort to draw attention to his case, the US Senate voted to rename the street address used by the Chinese embassy in Washington to Liu Xiaobo Plaza, but the bill was vetoed by Barack Obama.

More than 1,400 political dissidents are detained in China, according to a US congressional database, but the number is probably even higher as information about topics deemed sensitive by the ruling Communist party is heavily censored.

Since coming to power in 2012, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on civil society, including arresting feminist activists, human rights lawyers and book publishers. </s> Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo's condition is now critical and doctors are in "active rescue" mode for China's best-known political prisoner, the hospital treating him said.

The First Hospital of China Medical University said in a statement today that Mr Liu, who has liver cancer, is suffering from a severely swollen stomach, low blood pressure and poor kidney function.

Mr Liu's health has been the subject of international attention after the dissident expressed a desire to be transported abroad for treatment.

Two Western doctors visited him and said on Sunday that they deemed him strong enough to be evacuated, apparently contradicting Chinese expert opinion.

The Western doctors said the evacuation would need to take place soon before Mr Liu's condition deteriorates further.

Supporters and Western governments urged China to allow Mr Liu to choose where he wants to be treated and to release him, which Beijing has so far resisted, citing his fragile health and arguing that he is receiving the best possible care in China.

Mr Liu was convicted in 2009 of inciting subversion for his role in the "Charter 08" movement calling for political reform.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later while in prison.

At a daily briefing on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang repeatedly declined to say whether Mr Liu would be allowed to leave China and asked other countries to "respect China's national sovereignty and refrain from interfering in China's domestic affairs due to an individual case".

A video clip surfaced on Monday of what appeared to be a foreign expert, Markus W Buchler of Heidelberg University, addressing Mr Liu's wife Liu Xia to tell her that Chinese doctors were doing their utmost to help Mr Liu and were "very committed to his treatment".

Following a visit with Mr Liu on Saturday, Mr Buchler and American doctor Joseph Herman from the University of Texas said yesterday that they deemed him strong enough to be evacuated. </s> Chinese political prisoner and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo has been released from jail on medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Mo Shaoping, Liu’s lawyer, said that the human rights campaigner is in the late stages of the disease. He is being treated at a hospital in the north-eastern city of Shenyang, near where he was being held.

Liu was arrested in 2008 after writing a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08, where he called for an end to one-party rule in China and improvements in the human rights situation. After detention and a trial that lasted two hours, he was sentenced to 11 years in jail. He was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, where his presence was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony. The prize infuriated China, which then froze relations with Norway, and restored them only in December 2016.

Meanwhile, Liu’s wife Liu Xia has been under house arrest ever since he won the Peace Prize, and his lawyer said she may not know about his release and hospitalisation. Liu had previously been jailed for two years in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the subsequent massacre.

Liu’s brother-in-law was jailed in 2013 for fraud over a property dispute, but his lawyers said the case was politically motivated, The Guardian reported.

Amnesty International has asked Chinese authorities to ensure adequate medical care for Liu, granting him access to his family and immediate release of Liu and his family members from imprisonment. More than 1,400 political dissidents are detained in China, according to a US congressional database. </s> Chinese authorities have granted dissident Liu Xiaobo medical parole, freeing the Nobel Peace Prize winner from prison because he has terminal liver cancer. Liu, 61, is being allowed to seek treatment in a hospital outside of prison.

"According to his lawyer, Liu was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer while in prison last month," NPR's Rob Schmitz reports from Hong Kong. "[He] is being treated at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang."

Liu is more than halfway through the 11-year sentence he received in 2009 for what the government called "incitement to subvert state power." His main infraction was helping to write a six-page manifesto titled Charter 08, which called for an end to one-party rule in China along with direct elections and the separation of powers. The document states, for instance, "Public institutions should be used for the public."

A veteran activist and academic, Liu traveled from the U.S. to participate in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 — and in 2010, when he won the Nobel Peace Prize, he dedicated the award to those who died in the protests.

At the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo that year, Liu was represented by a chair on stage that sat empty.

Liu's wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest since the weekend he won the Nobel Prize, confined to her apartment in Beijing immediately after her return from visiting her husband in prison to discuss the honor. She's been largely isolated since then, with the government tightly controlling her interactions with friends.

In a statement about Liu's medical parole, Amnesty International says, "It adds insult to injury that Liu Xiaobo, who should never have been put in prison in the first place, has been diagnosed with a grave illness."

The aid group calls for the government to ensure Liu has proper medical care, access to his family — and that he and other rights activists are released.

Amnesty adds, "The authorities must also stop their shameful and illegal house arrest of Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, and ensure that she is able to receive visitors, travel freely and reunite with Liu Xiaobo."
Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who has been incarcerated in China for organizing the pro-democracy manifesto "Charter 08," is suffering from late-stage liver cancer which is worsening. The Chinese hospital treating him and foreign doctors, who examined Liu the weekend, disagree on future treatment. Germany, the United States, UK, and other countries have appealed that Liu be allowed to go to the hospital of his choice.