Margaret Atwood and leading authors appeal to Xi Jinping to release Liu Xia
NB: We may wonder why a super-power armed with nuclear weapons is so scared of free minds. DS
More than 50 prominent
international authors have written a letter to Chinese president Xi Jinping
urging him to free Liu Xia, the wife of deceased Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Liu Xiaobo. The letter, signed by Chimamanda
Adichie, Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, Tom Stoppard and George Saunders,
appealed to Xi’s “conscience” and “sense of compassion” to release Liu Xia, who
has been under house arrest since 2010 despite never being accused of any
crime.
“We urge you to lift all remaining
restrictions against Liu Xia, and to ensure her freedom of speech, her freedom
to meet with others, and her freedom to travel,” the joint letter said. “Liu
Xia has undergone great suffering for many years, simply for being the wife of
a man that China has deemed to be a dissident. “She is in poor
health, she is isolated from those who care for her, and she is grieving deeply
for the loss of her husband.”
The letter decried her
“de facto incommunicado detention” and cited China’s own constitution, which
technically guarantees freedom of expression, and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights in appealing for Liu Xia’s release. She is suffering from
heart problems and depression, according to friends who have spoken with her. Liu Xia was last seen
publicly on July 15 in photos of the memorial service for Liu Xiaobo, who died
in custody two days earlier. In a video
posted to YouTube in July she said: “I am outside recuperating,
everyone please grant me time to mourn, time for my heart to heal and one day I
will be able to face you all in a healthy state”. There were concerns at the
time the comments were not made of her own free will.
The letter signed by
52 literally and theatre figures was organised by PEN America, a group that
advocates for freedom of expression around the world. It was also signed by
Teju Cole, Louise Erdrich, Michael Chabon, Chang-rae Lee and Stephen Sondheim.
The group also opened the
letter to signatures from the public. “On his upcoming visit
to Beijing, we hope President Trump will voice the United States’ concern about
the inhumane and unjustifiable detention of a poet who has been accused of no
crime,” said Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN America.
Trump will visit
Beijing from November 8 to 9, but experts doubt he will raise the case of one
of China’s most prominent political prisoners. Liu Xiaobo died at 61
from cancer in July, under heavy police guard in a hospital in northeast China.
He was serving an 11 year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” when
he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. His wife Liu Xia was almost immediately
cut off from the outside world, confined to her apartment in Beijing. During a visit by the
Guardian to her apartment in July, plain clothes security agent surrounded
a reporter within second of arriving, aggressively trying to get the
journalist to leave.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/03/margaret-atwood-philip-roth-authors-letter-xi-jinping-release-liu-xia-xiaobosee also
