Press Release, July 10, 2108<\/p>\n
Poet Liu Xia, After Nearly 8 Years\u2019 House Arrest, Left for Germany<\/em><\/p>\n (New York) \u2013 The Chinese<\/a> government permitted Liu Xia, the widow of dissident Liu Xiaobo, to board a plane to Germany on the morning of July 10, 2018, nearly a year to the day since her husband\u2019s death, Human Rights Watch said today. The German government negotiated Liu Xia\u2019s release, whose health significantly deteriorated during nearly eight years of house arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a tremendous relief that Liu Xia has been able to leave China for freedom abroad,\u201d said Sophie Richardson<\/a>, China director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cEver since her late husband received the Nobel Peace Prize while in a Chinese prison, Liu Xia was also unjustly detained. The German government deserves credit for its sustained pressure and hard work to gain Liu Xia\u2019s release.\u201d<\/p>\n Liu Xia, 57, an artist, photographer, and poet, was never charged with a crime. However, since October 2010, when Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she had been held arbitrarily under house arrest<\/a>. Throughout Liu Xiaobo\u2019s hospitalization till his death on July 13, 2017, Liu Xia was prevented from speaking freely to family, friends, or the media.<\/p>\n In the past year since her husband\u2019s death, authorities continued to closely guard her home, allowing only a few friends and family members to speak to her on the phone or visit her. Liu Xia is reportedly suffering from severe depression and a range of physical ailments, including a heart condition. In April, she said to a friend in an emotional phone call, \u201cIf I can\u2019t leave, I\u2019ll die in my home\u2026 It would be easier to die than to live<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n While authorities allowed Liu Xia to leave China, her brother Liu Hui reportedly has remained in China. According to Liu Xia\u2019s friends, Liu Xia had previously hoped<\/a> she and Liu Hui could be allowed to leave China together. Liu Hui was prosecuted in 2013 on questionable fraud charges, though later released on bail.<\/p>\n The Chinese government has not taken any responsibility for Liu Xiaobo\u2019s death or Liu Xia\u2019s illness. During Liu Xiaobo\u2019s nearly eight years in a Liaoning prison, very little was known about the conditions of his imprisonment<\/a>. Throughout his hospitalization, authorities closely guarded Liu and only once allowed two independent foreign doctors to have access to Liu a week before his death. After the doctors determined Liu was \u201cfit for travel,\u201d the Chinese government restated its previous position that he was too ill to travel abroad for treatment.<\/p>\n Since President Xi Jinping took office in March 2013, China\u2019s government has tightened its control over society and stepped up its campaign against independent activists, lawyers, and others deemed a threat to the Chinese Communist Party. Authorities have arbitrarily detained countless people for their peaceful work or views. Several human rights defenders have either died in detention<\/a> or shortly after being released. China\u2019s deteriorating rights record is also being felt beyond its borders as it seeks to undermine international<\/a> human rights institutions.<\/p>\n Liu Xia\u2019s release and her departure from the country show that sustained international pressure can bring about positive human rights developments in China, Human Rights Watch said. There are important opportunities in the upcoming months, including the European Union-China summit and the Asia-Europe Meeting summit, during which sustained public pressure should focus on other Chinese activists and lawyers<\/a> wrongfully detained or imprisoned.<\/p>\n \u201cThe release of Liu Xia shows that when concerned governments push hard enough, Beijing will back down,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cPressure is still needed so that Chinese authorities won\u2019t harass Liu Xia\u2019s family members in China.\u201d<\/p>\n