Rights activists concerned for Nobel laureate’s wife, Liu
Xia, who attended cremation but has not been heard from for days
Funeral ceremony for
Liu Xiaobo, who died on Thursday of liver cancer at 61. His wife, Liu Xia, is
on the right, wearing sunglasses. Photograph: Shenyang government/Supplied
View more sharing
options
Shares
1,134
Tom Phillips in Beijing
Saturday 15 July 2017 12.38 BST First published on
Saturday 15 July 2017 02.55 BST
Friends of the late Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo, have voiced
rage and disgust after the announcement that the dissident’s ashes had been
cast into the ocean off north-eastern China in a hastily arranged sea burial
they believe was designed to deny supporters a place of pilgrimage.
“This is too evil, too evil,” the exiled author Liao Yiwu, a
close friend, told the Guardian after the details of Liu’s cremation and sea
burial emerged on Saturday afternoon. “They are a bunch of gangsters.”
The Guardian view on Liu Xiaobo’s death: free the Nobel
laureate’s wife now
Editorial: China jailed the author over an appeal for
peaceful democratic reform. It is too late to help him – but governments must
speak out for his wife, Liu Xia, and other political prisoners
Read more
Mo Zhixu, another friend and activist, said: “The regime
must be insane. They have done the worst thing you could have possibly
imagined.”
The artist Ai Weiwei said he suspected authorities had
decided to bury Liu at sea to deny his supporters “a physical memorial site” at
which to pay homage to him and his ideas. “It is a play,” he said. “Sad but
real.”
Liu died on Thursday, aged 61, becoming the first Nobel
peace prize winner to die in custody since the 1935 recipient, German pacifist
Carl von Ossietzky, died under surveillance after years confined to Nazi
concentration camps. His death sparked a wave of condemnation, which China
rejected as meddling in its “domestic affairs”.
Speaking at a press briefing in the city of Shenyang, where
Liu died, on Saturday afternoon a government spokesman claimed the activist’s
relatives had – of their own volition – taken his ashes out to sea after he was
cremated early that morning.
The official said family members had walked slowly on to the
deck of the funeral company’s ship carrying white and yellow chrysanthemums and
a biodegradable container which was lowered into the waters below. “They placed
the urn into the vast ocean,” the spokesperson told reporters, without taking
questions.
The government’s claim that Liu’s ashes had been scattered
into the sea at the family’s own request was supported by one of the Nobel
laureate’s brothers, Liu Xiaoguang, who appeared at the same press briefing.
“On behalf of my family I would like to express great thanks
to the Chinese Communist party and also the government because everything they
have done for our family shows a high level of humanity and personal care to
us,” the 68-year-old said.
He claimed the family had taken the decision to scatter
Liu’s ashes into the sea partly for environmental reasons.
Friends and activists said they believed Liu Xiaoguang been
coerced into addressing the media against his will.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Funeral ceremony for
Liu Xiaobo. Photograph: Shenyang government
Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s East Asia
director, described the briefing as “a crude, cruel and callous political show”
designed to mask Beijing’s responsibility for the death of Liu, who was
diagnosed with late-stage cancer in May while serving an 11-year sentence for
his role in a pro-democracy manifesto.
Advertisement
Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch’s China director,
said: “It’s very hard to imagine in the current circumstances that Liu’s
brother had any option to decline the authorities’ request to do this.”
Absent from the press briefing was Liu Xiaobo’s wife, the
poet Liu Xia. “Ms Liu Xia is not able to come here in person due to her very
weak condition,” Liu Xiaoguang said.
Earlier, China had released propaganda photographs showing
Liu Xia attending her husband’s funeral and cremation on Saturday morning.
The images showed mourners, including Liu Xia, gathered
beside a casket that was ringed by pots of white chrysanthemums. Above what
appeared to be the dead activist’s corpse a black banner read: “A farewell
ceremony for Mr Liu Xiaobo”. Officials said Mozart’s Requiem was played.
Liu Xia was also pictured, wearing black clothes and
sunglasses, in photographs and video clips of the sea burial that were
distributed by Chinese authorities.
China tells world to stay out of its 'domestic affairs' over
Liu Xiaobo's death
Read more
Friends say they are increasingly concerned about the
wellbeing of Liu Xia, who has lived under heavy surveillance and in almost
total isolation since her husband won the Nobel prize in 2010. Before Liu’s
death they had been attempting to leave China.
“We have lost touch with her now for three full days,” Jared
Genser, a US human rights lawyer who represents her and her late husband, told
the Guardian. “I’m incredibly concerned about her health and welfare.”
China News Service, a Communist party-controlled news
agency, claimed on Friday that Liu Xia was “a free woman” who was deliberately
shunning her friends and relatives because she wanted to grieve in peace.
On Saturday, a government spokesperson, Zhang Qingyang,
repeated those claims. “Liu Xia is free,” he said, according to Reuters,
without revealing her whereabouts. “I believe the relevant departments will
protect Liu Xia’s rights according to the law,” Zhang added.
Advertisement
According to AFP, Zhang claimed Liu Xia was “emotionally
grieving” and did not want “too much outside interference”.
Genser rejected claims that Liu Xia was free as “a sick
joke”.
“It leaves me incredulous to think that the Chinese
government would think that anybody would believe such a claim: that she is
grieving and does not want to be disturbed. I mean, come on. That is just
totally ridiculous.”
Genser added: “We all know the truth. The truth is clear as
day. She has been under house arrest without charge or trial for seven years
and even after her husband is dead that appears not to be good enough for the
Chinese government.”
Additional reporting by Wang Zhen
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the
Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast.
And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to
keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for
your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of
time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our
perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more
democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be
purchased by a few. I’m happy to make a contribution so others with less means
still have access to information.
Thomasine F-R.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to
support it, our future would be much more secure.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.