Even while he was enjoying relative freedom out of jail, thoughts of when he, and others like him, might be locked up again were never far from his mind.
“For those of us in the opposition movement under dictatorships, part of our job is confronting police, and spending time in prison. So, a dissident not only needs to learn how to oppose oppression, but also how to face the crackdowns, and time in prison,” Liu told reporters from Hong Kong.
‘I have no enemies’
Liu’s convictions were put to the test in 2009, when he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his part in the Charter 08 movement and other “subversive” activities. Worldwide fame came soon afterward when he was named as the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”
Liu learned of the honor from his wife during one of the limited prison visits she was permitted. He replied that the prize should be dedicated to those who died in the 1989 mass protests and subsequent crackdown.
Liu was known as an advocate of changing China through reasoned, non-violent means. Shortly before being sentenced in 2009, Liu praised elements of the Chinese legal system, including the polite treatment he received in jail, in a speech titled, “I have no enemies.”
“Hatred can corrupt one’s conscience and intelligence, enemy mentality could poison a nation’s spirit,” Liu said in the speech, which was read in his absence at the Nobel Prize ceremony.
Liu’s remarks confounded many advocates for democracy and freedom for China.
Critics pointed to the harsh treatment, including severe torture, of other activists to show the Chinese prison system is far less “humane” than Liu described it. Some suggested the authorities purposely showed leniency toward Liu so that he would make public statements in their support.
Unfulfilled wish
Liu was still three years from completing his prison term when he died.
In this recent undated handout photo, Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, left, is attended to by his wife Liu Xia in a hospital in China. The judicial bureau in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang says jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died of multiple organ failure Thursday, July 13, 2017, at age 61. (Photo via AP, File)
The German and American doctors who were allowed to see him during his last days reported that Liu, days before his death, had clearly communicated his wish to leave China for treatment elsewhere. However, Chinese authorities maintained that he was too sick to be moved.
Liu Xiaobo is survived by a son, and his wife of 21 years, Liu Xia, a staunch supporter of her husband who is reported to have said that she was determined to marry the “enemy of the state.” Reflecting on their lives in a poem, she said, “I like to draw trees; why? I like the image of it standing. A life spent standing must be tiresome, you say; I answer, yes, but still I must.”
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Liu was known as an advocate of changing China through reasoned, non-violent means. Shortly
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