BBC News - China 'steals wife's freedom' to pressurise Liu Xiaobo
China 'steals wife's freedom' to pressurise Liu Xiaobo
Nobel Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was convicted of subversion in 2009
China's Communist rulers are trying to force the country's jailed Peace Prize laureate into going into exile by putting pressure on his wife, who is not well, the BBC has been told.
A source close to the family has told us that Liu Xiaobo will not agree to leave China as that would lead to his voice being marginalised.
But the source said that Liu Xiaobo's wife Liu Xia is "suffering mentally" because she has now spent two years under illegal house arrest and continues to be detained.
His wife, Liu Xia, meanwhile, has not committed any crime in China but is being held in her home.
"There are two policewomen living with her in her apartment. And lots of plain-clothes police watching the compound constantly," our source told us.
Liu Xia's latest photo exhibition, on display in Hong Kong, focuses on the suffering of Chinese people
"Liu Xia's health is not very well. Mentally she suffers a lot because of the loss of personal freedom and the worries about her jailed husband."
"She is allowed to go out and visit her mother and meet one of her best friends roughly once a month, escorted by policewomen the entire time. Other than visits to her husband, that's it.
"She is not allowed to go anywhere else, not even to the park or shop. And no-one is allowed to even approach her compound, let alone visit her."
The individual added: "What the government is doing to Liu Xia is illegal. They do this routinely to dissidents in order to prevent them speaking to the press and tainting the government's image.
"Her husband is currently the most famous dissident in China, so she suffers tighter control than other dissidents."
The government wants Liu Xiaobo to leave because the fact that a Nobel Peace Prize winner is in jail is a reminder of China's poor human rights situation”
