https://www.scmp.com/rss/38310/feed 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died in custody in July 2017, was a writer, professor, and political dissident. In 2009, Liu was sentenced to 11 years for inciting subversion because of his involvement in writing Charter 08, a petition advocating political reform in China. Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Brian Wong Brian Wong A former Hong Kong opposition politician has argued that China’s one-party rule system is incompatible with the country’s constitution and fails to safeguard people’s fundamental rights, as he defended his calls to end “dictatorship” in a high-profile subversion trial. Ex-lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, a former chairman of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, argued on Tuesday that calling for an end to “one-party dictatorship” in mainland China... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3346900/tiananmen-vigil-activist-trial-says-one-party-rule-contradicts-countrys-constitution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3346900/tiananmen-vigil-activist-trial-says-one-party-rule-contradicts-countrys-constitution?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Mar 2026 10:36:25 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse US President Donald Trump’s obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize next month may have hit a hitch - the stubborn independence of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which insisted that it cannot be swayed. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has made it clear he wants the prestigious accolade, which his Democratic rival Barack Obama won to the surprise of many shortly after taking office in 2009. The 79-year-old billionaire has taken every opportunity to say he “deserves it”,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3325300/trumps-push-nobel-peace-prize-wont-sway-us-says-committee?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3325300/trumps-push-nobel-peace-prize-wont-sway-us-says-committee?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Sep 2025 06:02:20 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Given the long-degraded state of the Nobel Peace Prize, I say Donald Trump probably does deserve one, or three. It may also be jointly awarded to the US president’s Israeli partner-in-crime, the suspected war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu with an outstanding arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued by the International Criminal Court. Eventually, Netanyahu will have to end his war on the Palestinian civilian population, which ought to make him a peacemaker of sorts. If... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3318054/degraded-nobel-peace-prize-standards-could-mean-trump-deserves-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3318054/degraded-nobel-peace-prize-standards-could-mean-trump-deserves-one?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Jul 2025 13:34:18 +0000 Natalie Wong Natalie Wong Books about the Tiananmen Square crackdown have become increasingly scarce in Hong Kong’s independent bookstores, with sellers citing widespread self-censorship fuelled by legal uncertainties surrounding the sale of politically sensitive titles under the national security laws. The disappearance of the books and the loss of the annual June 4 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, combined with the city’s changed political environment, had contributed to turning commemoration into a private... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3312654/books-about-june-4-tiananmen-square-crackdown-grow-scarce-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3312654/books-about-june-4-tiananmen-square-crackdown-grow-scarce-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Jun 2025 01:30:23 +0000 A bipartisan group of US House members has launched a fresh campaign to rename the address of Hong Kong’s trade office in Washington in honour of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, a day after the US State Department sanctioned six officials in the city for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy”. Under a new bill introduced on Tuesday, the official address of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighbourhood would be changed from 1520 18th Street... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3304805/jimmy-lai-way-us-call-honour-jailed-tycoon-dc-address-hong-kong-trade-office?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3304805/jimmy-lai-way-us-call-honour-jailed-tycoon-dc-address-hong-kong-trade-office?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:00:08 +0000 Two senior officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday slammed Beijing for coercive behaviour globally on the economic, defence and other fronts, and discussed their wide-ranging efforts to push back. America’s ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, highlighted “very ill-advised efforts by the government of China to intimidate the Philippines at Second Thomas Shoal, at Sabina Shoal, in an incident at Scarborough Shoal, just to name three incidents over the last month or... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3277393/chinas-economic-coercion-evokes-greater-scrutiny-and-resentment-senior-us-officials-say?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3277393/chinas-economic-coercion-evokes-greater-scrutiny-and-resentment-senior-us-officials-say?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Sep 2024 21:13:49 +0000 It may be unseasonably warm here in Hong Kong for November but the chill is settling in within the cultural sphere. As the bodies (of work) pile up under the censor’s knife – and those are just the ones we know about – the increasingly random nature of what is banned is throwing Hong Kong’s much-vaunted future as a “centre for international cultural exchange”, as envisioned in the national 14th five-year plan, into doubt. Well before the 2020 introduction of the national security law, presenters... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3197916/be-arts-and-cultural-centre-hong-kong-must-first-make-clear-censorship-red-lines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3197916/be-arts-and-cultural-centre-hong-kong-must-first-make-clear-censorship-red-lines?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Nov 2022 22:30:08 +0000 China’s foreign minister warned against giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Hong Kong’s protesters, as he urged Norway to “cherish the healthy and stable” bilateral relationship that was once frozen by the award. Wang Yi also tried to cast doubt on the origin of the coronavirus, as he faced criticism over China’s handling of the pandemic during a press conference in Oslo, the third leg of his five-nation European tour intended to boost Chinese-European cooperation. Wang and Norwegian Foreign... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3099171/chinas-foreign-minister-warns-against-giving-hong-kong-protesters-nobel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3099171/chinas-foreign-minister-warns-against-giving-hong-kong-protesters-nobel?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Aug 2020 21:56:02 +0000 Laws govern our lives. They limit where we can go, what we can do and what we can say. Beijing’s law for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong is no different. We should be aware of its intent, but not fret or fear its existence. We have to put it to the back of our minds and get on with our lives.  Much has been said and written about this law with its six chapters and 66 articles, all without anyone having set eyes on it. Officials in Beijing and Hong Kong contend it will not affect... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090912/how-hong-kong-should-cope-national-security-law-keep-calm-and-carry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090912/how-hong-kong-should-cope-national-security-law-keep-calm-and-carry?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Jun 2020 22:30:13 +0000 It has been a dismal period for news, even setting aside Covid-19 and US President Donald Trump. Indeed, the coronavirus may be a cover for some of the nastiness. Here in Hong Kong, we have the spectacle of police seemingly wanting to punish dissent by attacking and pepper spraying chanters of slogans they find disagreeable. It is hard not to feel that, as after the 1967 riots and until the Independent Commission Against Corruption was formed, loyalty to the government gives officers carte... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084457/why-german-courts-challenge-eu-more-disturbing-trumps-outrage-or?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084457/why-german-courts-challenge-eu-more-disturbing-trumps-outrage-or?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 May 2020 19:00:11 +0000 Congressional Republicans continued their assault on Beijing on Thursday, launching a campaign to change the address of its embassy in Washington in honour of the late coronavirus whistle-blower doctor Li Wenliang, and announcing the establishment of a party-led “China task force” in the House of Representatives. Under new bills introduced in both the Senate and House, the official address of the Chinese embassy in Washington’s leafy northwest would be changed from 3505 International Place to 1... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3083413/republican-lawmakers-want-change-chinese-embassy-address?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3083413/republican-lawmakers-want-change-chinese-embassy-address?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2020 20:51:14 +0000 The Journey of Liu Xiaobo: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate edited by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman with Yu Zhang and others Potomac Books 4.5/5 stars Towards the end of a book launch held in Taipei in July 2017, bestselling Chinese author and demo­cracy advocate Yu Jie invoked a quote that was also the title of his latest work: “Take out a rib and use it as a torch.” Socrates had used these words, the author told the gathering, but Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had practised them throughout his... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3080053/journey-liu-xiaobo-reveals-how-chinese-dissident-went?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3080053/journey-liu-xiaobo-reveals-how-chinese-dissident-went?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Apr 2020 04:00:25 +0000 Hong Kong protesters need to be reminded. The China of July 1, 1997, is not the China of 2019. Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has become confident, strong and arrogant. There is no leeway for demands to be met, nor a willingness to acknowledge peaceful agitation. The fate of Liu Xiaobo, the only Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is evidence enough. The recent Nobel Prize awards make me think of Liu. Norwegian member of parliament, Guri Melby, last Tuesday nominated Hong Kong’s protesters... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033703/hong-kong-protesters-should-be-mindful-fate-nobel-peace-laureate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033703/hong-kong-protesters-should-be-mindful-fate-nobel-peace-laureate?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Oct 2019 01:00:09 +0000 The United States and Britain have joined a growing chorus of international governments expressing concern about China’s sentencing of an online activist to 12 years in prison. Huang Qi, who founded the 64 Tianwang website reporting on corruption, human rights violations and labour issues in China, was handed the jail term this week in a Sichuan court after being convicted for leaking and selling state secrets to foreign entities. On Thursday, the US State Department said that Huang’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3021061/us-and-britain-join-other-nations-criticising-chinas-jailing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3021061/us-and-britain-join-other-nations-criticising-chinas-jailing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Aug 2019 17:21:21 +0000 Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre, by Liao Yiwu (trans. by David Cowhig, Jessie Cowhig and Ross Perlin), Atria/One Signal Publishers, 5 stars “Years have passed,” poet Liao Yiwu writes in Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre. “The butchers are winning.” Sceptics and apologists whose hackles may be raised by his use of the word “massacre”, let alone “butchers”, should be the first to read Liao’s new... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3015526/people-who-cannot-forget-tiananmen-crackdown-and-lives-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3015526/people-who-cannot-forget-tiananmen-crackdown-and-lives-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Jun 2019 11:00:16 +0000 A Prague art gallery has unveiled a brass bust of the late Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. “It’s his first bust in the world so far,” Hana Janisova, spokeswoman for the Dox Centre for Contemporary Art, told AFP. A joint project of Amnesty International, Art for Amnesty, Humanitarian China and Dox, the bust by Czech sculptress Marie Seborova was unveiled on Monday as part of an... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3006634/brass-bust-late-chinese-dissident-liu-xiaobo-unveiled-prague-art?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3006634/brass-bust-late-chinese-dissident-liu-xiaobo-unveiled-prague-art?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:50:07 +0000 LinkedIn has restored access to the profile page of a prominent Chinese human rights activist, a day after the career networking site told him his page in China had been censored in accordance with the company’s commitment to adhering to the “requirements of the Chinese government”. LinkedIn informed New York-based activist Zhou Fengsuo on Wednesday evening that because of “specific content” in his profile his page could no longer be viewed by users in China, according to correspondence that... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2180620/linkedin-adhering-beijings-rules-censors-chinese-profile-page-us-based?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2180620/linkedin-adhering-beijings-rules-censors-chinese-profile-page-us-based?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Jan 2019 21:33:33 +0000 As a Chinese-American with 50 years’ experience working with the State Department and Library of Congress, I interacted frequently with members of Congress, including such prominent figures as Ted Kennedy, Charles Percy, Henry Jackson, Mike Mansfield and Bob Dole. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, there was strong, open support and sympathy for China and Chinese people among Congress. Yet, in the past 10 years, much appears to have changed. While Congress used to speak of engaging and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2175235/xinjiang-bill-shows-china-bashing-isnt-just?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2175235/xinjiang-bill-shows-china-bashing-isnt-just?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Nov 2018 18:01:58 +0000 Angela Merkel has set a pragmatic example for Western leaders in their dealings with China during her decade as chancellor of Germany, Chinese observers said. Merkel, who has said she will set down as chancellor in 2021, had managed to balance the need to do business with Beijing and uphold western political values, analysts said. “She is a rare case of a European leader who can be steady and pragmatic,” Tsinghua University international relations professor Shi Zhiqin said. Merkel has made a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2170939/angela-merkel-pragmatic-leader-who-balanced-germanys-needs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2170939/angela-merkel-pragmatic-leader-who-balanced-germanys-needs?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Oct 2018 15:34:48 +0000 When she was put under house arrest for no reason other than being married to a Nobel-winning Chinese dissident, the poet Liu Xia said her captivity was so ridiculous that “Kafka could not have written anything more absurd.” That was in 2012, when she was in captivity in Beijing and her husband, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, was still alive. But on Wednesday, Liu made her first major public appearance as a free woman in New York. She was allowed to leave China in July, a year after... https://www.scmp.com/china/liu-xia-new-york/article/2166017?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/liu-xia-new-york/article/2166017?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Sep 2018 10:30:45 +0000 Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, told an audience in New York on Wednesday that even today she is unsure where to start when talking about her late husband, in her first formal appearance since leaving China after eight years of de facto house arrest. Speaking at a panel discussion hosted by the Václav Havel Library Foundation, Liu Xia briefly talked about Liu Xiaobo, who died last July of liver cancer while on medical parole, and thanked supporters for their concern for the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2165972/liu-xia-talks-about-liu-xiaobo-thanks-supporters-their-concern?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2165972/liu-xia-talks-about-liu-xiaobo-thanks-supporters-their-concern?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Sep 2018 07:15:30 +0000 Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, arrived in New York late on Tuesday for what is expected to be her first formal appearance since settling in Berlin two months ago after nearly eight years of de facto house arrest in Beijing. Her friend, Berlin-based exiled Chinese writer Liao Yiwu announced on Twitter that they were in New York, along with members of his family, to attend a panel discussion and awards ceremony hosted by the Václav Havel Library Foundation. The panel... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2165791/liu-xia-widow-nobel-winner-liu-xiaobo-arrives-new-york-human?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2165791/liu-xia-widow-nobel-winner-liu-xiaobo-arrives-new-york-human?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Sep 2018 06:00:45 +0000 Beijing did not ask for anything in return for releasing artist and poet Liu Xia and allowing her to go to Berlin last month, according to the German ambassador to China. The 57-year-old widow of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent political prisoner Liu Xiaobo arrived in Germany last month after spending nearly eight years under house arrest in China. Her release prompted speculation over whether any political concessions had been made for her freedom at a time when Beijing is locked in a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2160553/china-made-absolutely-no-deals-liu-xias-release-german?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2160553/china-made-absolutely-no-deals-liu-xias-release-german?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Aug 2018 21:00:45 +0000 The health of Liu Xia, the 57-year-old artist and widow of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, has significantly improved nearly a month after she arrived in Germany following her release from almost eight years of house arrest in China. “The strength of her medicines has been reduced. She can now handle walking up to 3km a day – this was virtually impossible last month,” said her younger brother, Liu Hui, who is not allowed to leave China after he was sentenced to 11 years’ jail for fraud in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2159053/tasting-freedom-liu-xia-regains-her-health-she-settles?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2159053/tasting-freedom-liu-xia-regains-her-health-she-settles?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Aug 2018 05:30:49 +0000 On a busy pedestrian street, one recent afternoon in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping district, sprightly Vivian – dressed in a black T-shirt, colourful shorts and bright yellow trainers – scans the crowd for any­one who might lend an ear. The 61-year-old smiles and waves amiably to shoppers. Behind her, fellow demonstrators man a street stand framed by banners announcing their cause. “In Memory of Liu Xiaobo,” their message proclaims in large Chinese characters. “Set Liu Xia free... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2157010/liu-xiaobo-memorial-litmus-test-protest-fatigue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2157010/liu-xiaobo-memorial-litmus-test-protest-fatigue?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Jul 2018 05:00:15 +0000 It had to travel half a world but in April last year a plea from Chinese poet Liu Xia reached the hands of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, was under de facto house arrest in Beijing and had written a note clearly expressing her desire to leave China and settle in Germany with her husband and brother. The note was handed to Merkel by the chancellor’s long-time friend, singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann and included an appeal on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2156280/quiet-diplomats-how-germany-kept-pressure-china-free?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2156280/quiet-diplomats-how-germany-kept-pressure-china-free?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jul 2018 17:30:52 +0000 This month’s centenary celebrations in South Africa, marking the birth of Nelson Mandela, sadly remind us of the death of any other public figure whose unquestionable moral standing similarly eschewed bitterness and division, and promoted unity, democracy and peace through reconciliation. That void extends to Asia, where Mandela was a beloved icon and an inspiration to a generation of human rights activists. And a current lack of similar leaders of stature is very much a testament to the unique... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2156225/mandelas-legacy-lives-strong-asia-can-we-say-same-its-leaders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2156225/mandelas-legacy-lives-strong-asia-can-we-say-same-its-leaders?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jul 2018 05:45:30 +0000 Friends of Liu Xia, widow of dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, say they are making arrangements for her to meet a retired German political heavyweight to see whether he can assist in her brother’s case. Liu Xia was freed from eight years under house arrest on Tuesday and allowed to leave China, but her brother Liu Hui was barred from joining her in Berlin. One of her friends said they had approached Joachim Gauck, who was the German president from 2012 to 2017, to meet Liu... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2155293/liu-xias-friends-planning-meeting-joachim-gauck-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2155293/liu-xias-friends-planning-meeting-joachim-gauck-about?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jul 2018 13:32:03 +0000 The public memorial service in Berlin to mark the first anniversary of the death of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner who died in custody, was not attended by his widow Liu Xia. Friends said she was unable to attend owing to fears for her health and concerns about her younger brother Liu Hui, who remains in China. She was said to have remembered her husband alone yesterday. For hours on Friday evening, the quiet Gethsemane Church in Berlin became the focal point for an massive... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2155259/ailing-liu-xia-misses-memorial-service-husband-liu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2155259/ailing-liu-xia-misses-memorial-service-husband-liu?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jul 2018 05:45:15 +0000 Hundreds of people gathered in Hong Kong on Friday to mark the anniversary of the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo – while authorities in Beijing cracked down on the dissident’s supporters and told them not to try and keep his memory alive. The rainy weather did little to deter people from attending the candlelight vigil, which was organised by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, and was held at Tamar Park in Admiralty. Things were different... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2155237/hundreds-gather-candlelight-vigil-liu-xiaobo-hong-kong-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2155237/hundreds-gather-candlelight-vigil-liu-xiaobo-hong-kong-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Jul 2018 15:17:57 +0000 Exiled Chinese dissident Liao Yiwu has defended his decision to release emotional recordings of phone calls with the widow of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo despite intense pressure from Western diplomats not to go public with the conversations. Liao prompted controversy in May when he released a recording of phone calls in which Liu Xia – the late laureate’s wife – spoke of her despair. The release raised international awareness of her plight but also prompted concerns that the tactic... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154991/chinese-dissident-liao-yiwu-pressured-west-not-release?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154991/chinese-dissident-liao-yiwu-pressured-west-not-release?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Jul 2018 16:01:34 +0000 German doctors treating Liu Xia, who has suffered serious depression after years of house arrest, have expressed concerns about her condition and advised her to stop taking drugs prescribed in China, according to a long-time friend of hers. Her frail health casts serious doubts about whether she will be able to attend a public memorial ceremony for her late husband, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, in central Berlin on Friday. Berlin-based dissident writer Liao Yiwu – who spent several... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154942/liu-xia-told-not-take-drugs-prescribed-china-german?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154942/liu-xia-told-not-take-drugs-prescribed-china-german?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Jul 2018 04:46:41 +0000 Liu Xia, widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, spent her last hours in China in a secret state of chaos, excitement and disbelief that she might finally leave the home that had been her prison for eight years, according to friends. The poet and artist left Beijing on Tuesday, and by Wednesday guards assigned to watch the entrance to her home in the downtown area of Yuyuantan were absent for the first time in years. Liu Xia left the Chinese capital for Berlin via Helsinki, where she was... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154878/chaos-and-disbelief-liu-xias-last-hours-china-her?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154878/chaos-and-disbelief-liu-xias-last-hours-china-her?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jul 2018 22:00:00 +0000 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... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2154885/welcome-release-liu-xia-comes-time-when-china-needs-friends?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2154885/welcome-release-liu-xia-comes-time-when-china-needs-friends?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jul 2018 16:00:38 +0000 China on Wednesday sentenced a veteran pro-democracy campaigner to 13 years in prison on subversion charges, one day after releasing the widow of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate after eight years of house arrest. Qin Yongmin was found “guilty of subversion of state power”, the Wuhan City Intermediate People’s Court said on its official website. According to court records, it appears to be the heftiest sentence handed down in China for “subversion” in the past 15 years. The 64-year-old, first... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154749/leading-chinese-dissident-qin-yongmin-jailed-13-years?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154749/leading-chinese-dissident-qin-yongmin-jailed-13-years?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jul 2018 03:45:30 +0000 Liu Xia, the widow of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, spent her first night of freedom in almost a decade with close friends in Berlin. Liu, who had spent years under de facto house arrest in China, arrived in Berlin’s Tegel airport on Tuesday afternoon, and soon afterward was driven away by a car parked on the runway, arranged by the German government. Although the exact itinerary of her first night in Berlin as well as her precise whereabouts were unclear, she is known to have met... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154735/liu-xia-spends-first-night-freedom-friends-berlin-after?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154735/liu-xia-spends-first-night-freedom-friends-berlin-after?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jul 2018 02:15:15 +0000 Beijing’s decision to allow long-suffering Chinese artist and poet Liu Xia to fly to Germany after years of house arrest is a gesture of goodwill as it seeks to firm up ties with Berlin, observers said. Liu, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, arrived in Helsinki on Tuesday on her way to Berlin, after years of campaigning by Western diplomats and rights activists. Her release came just hours after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. As their... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2154689/no-coincidence-liu-xia-released-china-seeks-united?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2154689/no-coincidence-liu-xia-released-china-seeks-united?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jul 2018 15:30:30 +0000 After spending much of the past eight years imprisoned in her own home, Liu Xia, widow of China’s most prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo, was finally freed on Tuesday and is on her way to Germany. The 57-year-old poet, painter and photographer had been under house arrest since 2010, when her husband Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison. Liu Xia has never been charged with any crime. She was reunited with Liu Xiaobo in late June last year at a Shenyang hospital after the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154693/freedom-detained-dissidents-widow-liu-xia-after-long?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154693/freedom-detained-dissidents-widow-liu-xia-after-long?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:38:54 +0000 Poet and artist Liu Xia, the widow of China’s best known democracy advocate, has left the country after living under house arrest for nearly eight years. Liu Xia’s departure, on a Finnair flight, is being toasted by her family, friends and supporters around the world. Her brother Liu Hui celebrated In a social media post, saying she would start a new life in Europe. “She will finally get some more freedom,” Hu Jia, a friend and human rights activist, told Inkstone. “Her life had been full of... https://www.scmp.com/china/liu-xia-widow-liu-xiaobo-leaves-china/article/2154656?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/liu-xia-widow-liu-xiaobo-leaves-china/article/2154656?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jul 2018 10:15:45 +0000 Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, landed in Berlin via Helsinki on Tuesday after she was finally allowed to leave China for Germany, ending a near eight-year ordeal of house arrest. Her release – sought for years by Western governments and activists – came after repeated diplomatic efforts by Germany and just three days before the first anniversary of her husband’s death in custody from liver cancer. The 57-year-old poet and artist appeared exhilarated... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154570/liu-xia-widow-nobel-prize-winner-liu-xiaobo-flies-out?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2154570/liu-xia-widow-nobel-prize-winner-liu-xiaobo-flies-out?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jul 2018 05:00:30 +0000 UN human rights experts urged China on Wednesday to release Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, and allow her to seek treatment for deteriorating health, including travelling abroad. The appeal came nearly a year after Liu Xiaobo died of liver cancer on July 13, 2017, while in custody, having been jailed in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power”. Liu Xia, an artist and poet who suffers from depression, has been under effective house arrest since her husband was... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2153817/un-experts-seek-urgent-release-liu-xiaobos-widow?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2153817/un-experts-seek-urgent-release-liu-xiaobos-widow?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Jul 2018 16:35:18 +0000 Your article, “Hong Kong activists heed legal threats and move statue of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo from Times Square mall” (June 19), refers to comments from the organisers of the protests that the area they had occupied was a “public space”. I happen to be a resident of Causeway Bay and a frequent visitor to Times Square. The space where the protesters set up their stall and other materials, underneath the landmark clock tower and the plaque with the Times Square logo, was... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2152002/liu-xiaobo-protest-times-square-put-building-management-tight-spot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2152002/liu-xiaobo-protest-times-square-put-building-management-tight-spot?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Jun 2018 04:14:04 +0000 I refer to the report, “Dissident’s statue moved after legal threat from mall” (June 20), and wish to point out that certain activists have far too often forsaken reason and disregarded the rights of others when claiming to exercise their freedom of expression. The latest instance was when a group of activists set up a booth outside Times Square on May 31, with a bust of the late Chinese pro-democracy poet Liu Xiaobo and an exhibition to mark the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2151676/why-liu-xiaobo-protest-site-times-square-deserved-go?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2151676/why-liu-xiaobo-protest-site-times-square-deserved-go?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Jun 2018 10:02:07 +0000 Hong Kong activists moved a statue of late Chinese pro-democracy icon Liu Xiaobo from outside a popular shopping centre on Tuesday after the building’s owner warned it would seek a court order for the group’s removal. The group called the management of Times Square “shameless” and vowed to complain to the Lands Department to see if the mall had mismanaged public space. “It is so regrettable that a public space which belongs to Hongkongers cannot even tolerate a peaceful display of the statue,”... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2151494/hong-kong-activists-heed-legal-threats-and-move-statue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2151494/hong-kong-activists-heed-legal-threats-and-move-statue?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Jun 2018 10:15:00 +0000 Hong Kong activists unveiled a statue of late Chinese pro-democracy icon Liu Xiaobo outside a popular shopping centre on Tuesday, despite being asked to leave the area by the building’s owner. The group called on the management of Times Square to allow them to stay until July 13 – the first anniversary of the death Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu – and said they would leave the site afterwards. “Times Square is really the place where we can meet the most mainland tourists … not many of them have... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2150424/statue-nobel-peace-prize-winner-liu-xiaobo-erected-times?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2150424/statue-nobel-peace-prize-winner-liu-xiaobo-erected-times?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Jun 2018 09:41:24 +0000 Activists staging a tribute for the late Chinese pro-democracy icon Liu Xiaobo for the past two weeks have been told to leave the grounds of a popular Hong Kong shopping centre for “unauthorised occupation”, according to lawyers for the building’s owner. Tsang Kin-shing, of the League of Social Democrats, said he received a letter from lawyers for Times Square on Friday. On May 31 he set up a booth with a bust of Liu and an exhibition to commemorate the Tiananmen Square crackdown. “At first,... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2150058/activists-who-erected-exhibition-late-chinese-dissident-liu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2150058/activists-who-erected-exhibition-late-chinese-dissident-liu?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Jun 2018 14:30:15 +0000 Liu Xia, widow of dissident Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, has said she felt that loving her husband was a “crime” for which she had received a “life sentence”, according to an audio recording released on Friday. Liu Xia, 57, has been under de facto house arrest – despite facing no charges – ever since her husband was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, in a move that angered Beijing. Liu Xiaobo, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, died last year while serving an 11-year jail... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2148922/wife-chinese-dissident-liu-xiaobo-feels-she-serving?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2148922/wife-chinese-dissident-liu-xiaobo-feels-she-serving?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Jun 2018 14:33:16 +0000 In a move to reawaken Hongkongers’ waning support for the upcoming 29th anniversary of the Tiananmen Crackdown, a group of activists erected a bust of the late Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese pro-democracy icon, at a shopping district popular among mainlanders on Thursday. On June 4 every year since 1990, a candlelight vigil is held in the city’s Victoria Park to mark the anniversary of the bloody anti-government crackdown in 1989 in Beijing, which followed large-scale street protests and weeks-long... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2148715/bust-chinese-dissident-liu-xiaobo-erected-outside-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2148715/bust-chinese-dissident-liu-xiaobo-erected-outside-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 May 2018 13:21:11 +0000 Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, was assured by a senior Chinese official that she could leave the country by April. But the promise hasn’t been fulfilled, and Liu Xia is still under house arrest. Liu has been in captivity since 2010, the year her late husband won the Nobel Peace Prize. She has never been charged with any offence.     Tension around Liu’s arbitrary detention has prompted an international outcry about China’s human rights abuses.... https://www.scmp.com/politics/liu-xia-widow-chinese-nobel-peace-prize-winner-liu-xiaobo-told-she-could-leave-country-april-shes/article/2147776?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/politics/liu-xia-widow-chinese-nobel-peace-prize-winner-liu-xiaobo-told-she-could-leave-country-april-shes/article/2147776?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 May 2018 09:45:15 +0000 China and Germany on Thursday vowed to boost cooperation on driverless cars and were united in their opposition to US President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies, but they remain at odds over Beijing’s heavy-handed approach to human rights cases. German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a delicate balancing act as she began her two-day visit to China – a trip clouded by Trump’s trade threats that could harm German carmakers and his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal that may... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2147657/china-germany-vow-work-together-driverless-cars-amid-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2147657/china-germany-vow-work-together-driverless-cars-amid-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 May 2018 12:09:44 +0000