Chinese activist's wife describes his imprisonment

Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo pictured in the Nobel Peace Center (Getty Images)

After more than two years of house arrest and government-imposed silence, the wife of China's imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo on Thursday talked to reporters who snuck in to see her during an apparent lunch break by the guards watching her apartment.

In her first interview since 2010, Liu Xia described her husband's imprisonment and her house arrest to journalists from the Associated Press as Kafkaesque.

"I really never imagined that after he won I would not be able to leave my home," she said, describing her new life, which is restricted to an apartment with no Internet, phone or trips outside, except to buy groceries and visit her parents. "This is too absurd."

Her comments come days ahead of the two-year anniversary of Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, at which his absence was symbolized with an empty chair, and as the Chinese government celebrates the country's only other native Nobel laureate living there, fiction writer Mo Yan, who departed for Stockholm this week to collect the award.

The timing highlights the stark difference in the government's approach to the two men — condemning Liu's award as a discredit and grossly unjust political act by Norway while praising this year's award as a well-deserved recognition of China's "time-honored history and . . . splendid culture."

Liu Xiaobo is serving an 11-year prison sentence for "subversion of state power" after helping to author and circulate a call for democratic and human rights reforms called Charter 08.

A petition started by Desmond Tutu demanding that Liu Xiaobo be freed was released this week along with signatures from 134 fellow Nobel laureates.

Although much of the attention has focused on her husband's plight, human rights groups say Liu Xia's house arrest is, in some ways, an even more flagrant legal abuse. She was put under house arrest without any charges or conviction of any crime. There is no legal provision for such arrests under Chinese law.

Her imprisonment, activists groups say, contradicts official commitments to strengthen rule of law in China.

In his most recent comments on the subject, China's new top leader, Xi Jinping, admitted this week that some officials abuse their power and said that he vowed to fight for rule of law. "We must firmly establish throughout society the authority of the constitution and the law and allow the overwhelming masses to fully believe in the law," Xi said.

In a phone interview Thursday, Liu Xiaobo's attorney, Mo Shaoping, said, "It's good that Xi Jinping addressed the constitution, but it's not important about what he said. More important is what he will do. If the new leaders really want to improve the judiciary system, they should free Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia." Mo said he held out hope for some movement on Liu's and his wife's situation. "Liu Xiaobo is the best chess piece in their hand if they want to improve their international image."

According to the Associated Press report, Liu Xia appeared frail and was visibly shaken with surprise when several reporters from the news agency were able to enter her apartment. She said that she last saw her husband a few weeks ago and that although she is forbidden to tell him about her house arrest, he knows she is being detained.

"I told him: 'I am going through what you are going through almost,' " according to the AP report.

Reached by phone, Liu Xiaobo's younger brother expressed surprise that reporters had been able to reach Liu's wife. The brother, Liu Xiaoxuan, who lives in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, said that, like most others, he had lost any way of reaching Liu Xia directly for months. "I had lost connection with Liu Xia. . . . I can only pass word to her via her mother," he said.

The brother said he was able to visit Liu Xiaobo at prison in September but declined to speak further out of worry that more comments to foreign media could worsen his family's situation.

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Washington Post special correspondent Zhang Jie contributed to this report.