China Nobel Winner's Widow Free After German Diplomatic Push

(Bloomberg) -- The widow of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was allowed to leave China and travel to Europe, ending her long house arrest after a high-profile German-led diplomatic push.

Liu Xia, who was placed under house arrest after her husband’s subversion conviction in 2009, had left Beijing “to start a new life,” her brother, Liu Hui, said on the WeChat messaging platform Tuesday. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs later confirmed the Beijing-based poet’s departure, saying she went to Germany to seek medical treatment.

“The Chinese government is handling this issue in accordance with the law,” the ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing. Liu Xia, 57, had been kept under police surveillance despite having never been charged with a crime.

Liu Xia was released almost a year after her husband succumbed to liver cancer in a secure Beijing hospital bed, the first Nobel laureate to die under guard since pacifist and Nazism critic Carl von Ossietzky’s 1938 death in Germany. Liu Xiaobo’s demise -- after serving eight years in prison for advocating an end to one-party rule -- prompted renewed calls for Liu Xia’s freedom.

Liu Xia’s supporters had sought for her to emigrate to Germany and the country’s ambassador to China, Michael Clauss, told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper in April that she should “enjoy the freedom of movement and to travel wherever she desires.” A reporter’s question during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s May visit to Beijing prompted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to defend his country’s human rights record.

Berlin Meeting

The move comes a day after Merkel met with Li in Berlin and praised his country’s greater openness to foreign investment. China is trying to cast itself as an ally in Germany’s defense of the rules-based global trade order and international agreements including the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, which have been challenged by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A spokesman for the German Embassy in Beijing said he was unable to confirm any details. The German Foreign Office and a spokesman for Merkel declined to comment on the case.

Hua, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said she saw no connection between the Merkel’s meeting with Li and Liu Xia’s release. The two leaders were expected to attend an autonomous vehicle demonstration Tuesday in Berlin.

Since coming to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has extended crackdowns against human-rights lawyers and prominent internet commentators. Some 1,414 political and religious dissidents were imprisoned in the country as of November, according to the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which said “considerably more” cases have probably not been reported.

The decision to release Liu Xia could provide a more favorable diplomatic backdrop for the European Union-China Summit scheduled for Monday in Beijing. The two sides are expected to discuss a range of trade and policy issues during the event.

--With assistance from Birgit Jennen.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka@bloomberg.net;Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, ;Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Jason Koutsoukis

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With assistance from Editorial Board