Sad scenes of Liu Xia, wife of Liu Xiaobo – writer, professor, and political dissident, in 2009, Liu was sentenced to 11 years for inciting subversion because of his involvement in writing Charter 08, a petition advocating political reform in China – were aired on newscasts recently. She was seen crying in a car outside Huairou Detention Centre where her brother Liu Hui has been jailed in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing, China.
She has written an open letter to President Xi Jinping, questioning her detention under house arrest and its legality, and, now her brother’s imprisonment. Liu Xia urged the president to ensure his “Chinese dream” does not translate into a “Chinese nightmare” for ordinary man and women of China.
In a fretful, hand-written letter posted on Twitter by her lawyer, Shang Baojun, she says: “Nobody has given me a reason for my detention … maybe in this country, being Liu Xiaobo’s wife is a kind of crime.”
Liu Xia has been living alone since her jailed husband won the Nobel Prize in October 2010 as she is under round-the-clock house arrest with no access to Internet or phones, her friends are dis-allowed visits.
She told reporters the 11-year sentence given to her younger brother days ago was “totally unjust”. This sentence for a conviction of defrauding a contractor of 3 million yuan with a business partner.
Liu Hui himself insisted he was a victim of retaliation by the authorities who were resisting his visits to his sister, twice in recent months, and also by reporters and activists who broke the security cordon around her place of confinement.
“What we should see from state authority is justice, and not ruthless suppression based on violence,” Liu Xia commented. “Every case of abuse of an individual’s rights … overshadows the aura of the state authority’s legitimacy.
“Mr President, your ‘Chinese dream’ should be manifested in every citizen. I hope this Chinese dream will not turn into a ‘Chinese nightmare’ for individuals like me,” she stated, alluding to President Xi’s touted “Chinese dream” – his vision of a strong and prosperous nation declared since becoming president, in March, 2013, and head of the Communist Party in the previous year.
