In the telephone call, a Chinese woman vents her despair between hoarse sobs. It would be easier to die, she says. Her appeals to escape stifling house arrest have failed repeatedly, despite offers from Germany to take her in, she says.
The woman, Liu Xia, is a poet and artist and the widow of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and died under police guard in July. A recording of her call, released this week, has thrown glaring attention on the plight of Ms. Liu, who is living under constant police surveillance in her Beijing home.
“There’s nothing left to make me reluctant to leave this world,” Ms. Liu said in the call a week ago with Liao Yiwu, an exiled Chinese writer in Germany who released a written account of their conversation and a seven-minute recording of the call. “Xiaobo has gone,” Ms. Liu said, referring to her husband. “It would be easier to die than to live,” she said. “Nothing would be simpler for me than dying in defiance.”
The woman, Liu Xia, is a poet and artist and the widow of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and died under police guard in July. A recording of her call, released this week, has thrown glaring attention on the plight of Ms. Liu, who is living under constant police surveillance in her Beijing home.
“There’s nothing left to make me reluctant to leave this world,” Ms. Liu said in the call a week ago with Liao Yiwu, an exiled Chinese writer in Germany who released a written account of their conversation and a seven-minute recording of the call. “Xiaobo has gone,” Ms. Liu said, referring to her husband. “It would be easier to die than to live,” she said. “Nothing would be simpler for me than dying in defiance.”
