Liu Xiaobo

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Liu.

Liu Xiaobo
Portrait of Liu Xiaobo
Born	(1955-12-28)28 December 1955 Changchun, Jilin, China
Died	13 July 2017(2017-07-13) (aged 61) Shenyang, Liaoning, China
Cause of death	Multiple organ failure complicated from liver cancer
Nationality	Chinese
Alma mater	Jilin University Beijing Normal University
Occupation(s)	Writer, political commentator, human rights activist
Spouse(s)	Liu Xia ​ ​ (m. 1996; "his death" is deprecated; use "died" instead. 2017)​
Awards	2010 Nobel Peace Prize

Liu Xiaobo^[1] (28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese intellectual, writer, human rights activist and a political prisoner in China.^[2]

He has been President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center since 2003. On 8 December 2008, police stopped Liu and held him because of his work with Charter 08. He was not actually arrested until 23 June 2009. The government accused him of encouraging people to turn against the state.^[3][4] He had a trial on 23 December 2009.^[5] On 25 December 2009, the court decided he must go to prison for eleven years. The court also took away his political rights for two years.^[6]

He won the Nobel Peace Prize on 8 October 2010, for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."^[7][8] This was during the fourth time Liu was in prison.^[9]

He is the first Chinese person to win a Nobel Prize while living in China.^[10] He is also the third person to win the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention. The others were Germany's Carl von Ossietzky in 1935 and Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.

On 26 June 2017, he was granted medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.^[11] He died a few weeks later on 13 July 2017.^[12]

1. ↑ Liu Xiaobo (simplified Chinese: 刘晓波; traditional Chinese: 劉曉波)
2. ↑ NobelPrize.org, "Liu Xiaobo"; retrieved 2012-9-17.
3. ↑ Benjamin Kang Lim, China's top dissident arrested for subversion, Reuters, 24 June 2009.
4. ↑ "刘晓波因涉嫌煽动颠覆国家政权罪被依法逮捕 Archived 2009-06-30 at the Wayback Machine" (Liu Xiaobo Formally Arrested on 'Suspicion of Inciting Subversion of State Power' Charges), China Review News, 24 June 2009.
5. ↑ Cite error: The named reference canyu was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
6. ↑ Cite error: The named reference judg was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
7. ↑ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 - Prize Announcement", nobelprize.org, 8 October 2010
8. ↑ "Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize (劉曉波獲諾貝爾和平獎)", RTHK, 8 October 2010, archived from the original on 11 October 2010, retrieved 9 October 2010
9. ↑ McKinnon, Mark. "Liu Xiaobo could win the Nobel Peace Prize, and he’d be the last to know" Archived 2016-08-12 at the Wayback Machine. The Globe and Mail. 7 October 2010. 'Ms. Liu said her husband had been told by his lawyer during a recent visit that he had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but he would be shocked if he won, she said. “I think he would definitely find it hard to believe. He never thought of being nominated, he never mentioned any awards. For so many years, he has been calling for people to back the Tiananmen Mothers (a support group formed by parents of students killed in the 1989 demonstrations)..”'
10. ↑ Lovell, Julia (9 October 2010). "Beijing values the Nobels. That's why this hurts". The Independent. UK: Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 10 October 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
11. ↑ "Chinese Nobel winner has terminal cancer". BBC News. 26 June 2017.
12. ↑ "Liu Xiaobo: Prominent China dissident dies". BBC. 13 July 2017.