On June 6, two days after the bloody crackdown, Liu was abducted and taken to Beijing’s Qincheng Prison, where he was held for twenty months. Upon his release, Liu agitated for the release of other political prisoners arrested for their participation in the protests. His editorial and social skills—and encouragement from his mentor Ding Zilin—saw him become involved in drafting Charter 08, a radical blueprint for a democratic society in a post-Party China modeled on the Charter 77 movement of Czech and Slovak dissidents. Liu was arrested on the eve of Charter 08’s release and sentenced to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” While incarcerated, Liu won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Although he was technically released on medical parole while ill with liver cancer, he never regained his freedom of movement, and died while still in state custody.
Perry Link, professor emeritus of East Asian studies at Princeton University and professor of comparative literature/Chinese at the University of California, Riverside, joined CDT to discuss his new book “I Have No Enemies: The Life and Legacy of Liu Xiaobo.”
