bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Mimi Lau

Ailing Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo is very close to death and his family had signed documents acknowledging his dire condition, the hospital treating him announced on Wednesday afternoon.
Doctors had asked the family whether Liu could be given tracheal intubation but the request was rejected, the hospital said.


Earlier, the hospital said Liu’s condition had worsened and he was being resuscitated as his organs failed.




However, a family member said Liu’s condition had improved in the morning. Friends also said security in the area around the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, northeastern Liaoning province, had been stepped up, while Liu’s friends and family were under increased surveillance.
The 61-year-old dissident, who has late-stage liver cancer, is on dialysis and is at the resuscitation stage, the hospital said in a statement. “[He remains] in septic shock and his organ functions continue to fail,” the statement said.
Hong Kong pan-democrats urge Beijing to release ailing dissident Liu Xiaobo in Legco petition
But the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said one of Liu’s relatives had told them Liu was conscious and in a better condition after receiving dialysis.
It was not possible to confirm the information on Wednesday amid heightened security around the hospital and increased surveillance of Liu’s family members to prevent them from talking to his friends and the media.
Some of Liu’s friends said they were contacted by police on Tuesday. “We have been told that Liu won’t be allowed to go overseas and we are not allowed to go to Shenyang. We can’t take interviews either,” said one of Liu’s friends, who did not want to give their name.
Chinese evade censors to express sorrow over plight of Liu Xiaobo
Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times tabloid issued another scathing editorial on Wednesday, describing Western appeals to have Liu transferred overseas for treatment as “hypocritical”.
Dying Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo still pleading to leave China
“Despite their loud rhetoric, Western forces are not persuasive in their reasoning. What they care about is not Liu’s treatment, but transferring him abroad. This is a political charade,” the article said.
It also hit out at the German embassy in Beijing for its statement on Monday criticising the Shenyang hospital for releasing unauthorised video of two foreign doctors, one of them German, as they visited Liu. The German statement also said the country’s security services were steering Liu’s treatment rather than the doctors.

In one of the video clips, a German cancer specialist is seen praising the Chinese medical team for their efforts.
“Why does China need trust from the German side in treating Liu, which is absolutely a domestic affair?” the editorial said.
How China buys the silence of the world’s human rights critics
Liu was arrested in December 2008 for his part in drafting pro-democracy manifesto “Charter 08”. He was sentenced to 11 years’ jail on subversion charges but was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
The jailed dissident was represented by an empty chair at the award ceremony in Norway.
Liu was granted medical parole last month after being diagnosed with advanced liver cancer at the end of May.
Merkel appeals to China for ‘humanity’ for ailing Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo
He was reunited with his wife, Liu Xia, at the hospital for the first time in the eight years since he was jailed. Liu’s friends have said he wanted to be treated in Germany – and for his wife to go with him – and was still pressing to leave the country for treatment, even though he may not have long to live.
Germany, the United States, Britain and other countries have appealed for Liu to be treated at a location of his choice, but so far the Chinese authorities have resisted the ­entreaties.





















Trump’s push for the Nobel Peace Prize won’t sway us, says committee

Degraded Nobel Peace Prize standards could mean Trump deserves one

Books about June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown grow scarce in Hong Kong

‘Jimmy Lai Way’: US call to honour jailed tycoon in DC address of Hong Kong trade office

Liu Xiaobo

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo very near to death, hospital says

Liu Xiaobo was granted medical parole last month after being diagnosed with advanced liver cancer at the end of May. Photo: Handout

=== NO ARCHIVE IMAGE === Chinese media release a video of German, US and Chinese specialists examining Liu Xiaobo at the hospital in Shenyang, China. 10JUL17. UNDATED HANDOUT

Hong Kong pan-democrats urge Beijing to release ailing dissident Liu Xiaobo in Legco petition

Lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung speaks to the media. Photo: Dickson Lee

FILE - In this Thursday, June 29, 2017, file photo, an online video clip shows China's jailed Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo lying on a bed receiving medical treatment at a hospital on a computer screen in Beijing. According to a statement Friday, July 7, 2017 on the website of the First Hospital of China Medical University, the Chinese medical team charged with treating imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has stopped using cancer-fighting drugs so as not to overwhelm his severely weakened liver, raising concerns that China's most prominent political prisoner is critically ill. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

News

China

Politics

Family members sign documents acknowledging his condition, but refuse procedure for assisted breathing, according to officials
