Welcome release of Liu Xia comes at a time when China needs friends
With the widow of Liu Xiaobo now in Germany, Beijing must think again on how it handles rights activists amid global tensions and a growing US trade war
The release of an individual has rarely been met with as much humanitarian acclaim as the freedom from house arrest of Liu Xia, widow of rights dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo – and understandably so.
The Chinese authorities had restricted the movement of the 57-year-old poet and artist for eight years without charging her with any wrongdoing.
Her “crime”, apparently, was to be married to Liu Xiaobo, regarded as a criminal whose peace prize deeply angered Beijing, which saw it as gratuitous meddling in its internal affairs.
He died in captivity a year ago tomorrow of liver cancer, while serving an 11-year sentence for incitement of subversion as co-author of the now historic Charter 08.
This is a document signed by hundreds of intellectuals calling on the Communist Party to respect human rights, uphold the rule of law and introduce democratic reforms.
Liu Xia’s ordeal of confinement under constant surveillance, which began with the peace prize award after her husband’s conviction and jailing, took a relentless physical and emotional toll that left her with clinical depression.
Officially, according to Beijing, Liu Xia had gone to Germany to “treat her illness according to her wishes”.