German, US Doctors to Examine Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo

German, US Doctors to Examine Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo

SHENYANG, CHINA â€" 

The United States is arranging for an American doctor to visit China and examine ailing Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who won the Noble Peace Prize in 2010, when he was imprisoned for “his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”

“The U.S. Department of State is facilitating travel for an American medical expert to come to China,” said Anna Richey-Allen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department’s East Asia bureau. “We have asked that China grant these doctors unhindered access to Liu.”

Liu, 61, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition known as Charter 08 that called for democratic reforms in China. He was granted medical parole in late June to a hospital in China’s northeastern city of Shenyang to be treated for late-stage liver cancer.

​Deteriorating condition

Liu is under treatment at the Number One Teaching Hospital of the China Medical Sciences University, where there is a unit on the 23rd floor usually reserved for high-level officials.

On Friday evening, the hospital said that Liu’s appetite was “quite poor” and that abdominal fluid that had built up had been drained.

A source at Germany’s foreign ministry told Reuters that a German cancer specialist is at the hospital that is treating Liu.

“We hear that his condition has deteriorated rapidly. We are very concerned about that,” the German source said.

The Chinese medical team treating Liu decided to stop use of an inhibitor drug for advanced liver cancer because of Liu’s rapidly worsening liver functions, according to a statement Friday on the hospital’s website.

The hospital has invited doctors from the United States and Germany to help with Liu’s treatment, the Shenyang city justice department said Wednesday.

Watch: VOA Reporter Finds High Security at Hospital Where Liu Is Being Treated

New security measures

Security at the hospital has increased over the past few days. A section on the 23rd floor was blocked off with screens. A VOA reporter attempting to get behind the screen was stopped by men on the other side of the screen as well as a man, clad in black, who was trailing the reporter.

Two people guarded the elevator on the 23rd floor. A delivery man with food for a patient was told to wait as guards called family members to pick up the order. Both the delivery man and the patient’s family told VOA that the security procedures were new and found on no other hospital floor.

The hospital, however, has not announced Liu’s whereabouts. On Friday, when reporters raised the question of whether any rules banned people from visiting Liu, hospital representatives said that the hospital was not aware of any restrictions other than the patient’s condition.

Brother-in-law statement

On Thursday, Liu’s brother-in-law, Liu Hui, denied that doctors had halted medication for him, in a letter released by the hospital, following rumors that the dissident was too ill for treatment to continue.

A family friend of Liu said his medication had been halted as his liver was unable to take it.

“The Chinese government often pressures family members to write statements or record videos to make claims in its favor,” Patrick Poon, a China researcher for the human rights group Amnesty International, said in a message to Reuters, referring to the letter.

“If Liu Hui is free, why can’t he talk to journalists?” added Poon, who is based in Hong Kong.

Calls have grown from rights groups, international bodies and Western governments for China to allow Liu and his wife, Liu Xia, to be treated overseas if they wish.

Since 2009, China has ignored international calls to free Liu while isolating him. His wife, Liu Xia, has been under strict house arrest in Beijing although she’s never been accused of any crime. Since receiving medical parole, Liu, his wife and family members have been largely prevented from communicating with the outside.

The European Parliament Thursday urged China to immediately release the couple from house arrest and allow Liu to seek treatment freely.

China declines to comment

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declined Friday to comment about Liu’s treatment and media access to his family.

However, he expressed displeasure at the involvement of the United Nations, after Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, met Chinese officials about Liu.

“Relevant U.N. officials should strictly abide by the U.N. charter’s purposes and principles, should respect China’s judicial sovereignty and not interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Geng told a daily news briefing.

The U.N. human rights office Friday said it was very concerned about reports of serious deterioration in Liu’s health.

“The high commissioner has requested that a senior U.N. official be urgently granted access to Liu Xiaobo and to Liu Xia,” it said in a briefing note. “However, we have so far received no response from the Chinese government to this request.”

This report from Shenyang, China originated on VOA Mandarin. VOA reporter Natalie Liu contributed additional material from Washington, D.C.

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