Activists, family members, and U.S. officials are mourning the death of China's most prominent political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.
Liu, 61, was hospitalized in China in May for late-term liver cancer while serving his fourth prison sentence on charges of inciting subversion with his pro-democracy writings. The Chinese government repeatedly denied his request to receive liver treatment abroad, including a last-minute campaign in his final weeks from family members and supporters to persuade Beijing to let him travel to the United States or Germany for palliative care and advanced treatment.
Jared Genser, the attorney who helped lead that push, lamented Liu's passing in a statement issued Thursday.
"My heart breaks for Liu Xia, who was deeply in love with her husband," he said. "My thoughts and prayers are with her, their family and the countless friends Liu Xiaobo had around the world."
"Despite the tragedy that Liu's freedom has come from his death, it is clear today that the Chinese government has lost," he said. "Liu's ideas and his dreams will persist, spread, and will, one day, come to fruition. And his courage and his sacrifice for his country will inspire millions of Chinese activists and dissidents to persevere until China has become the multi-party democracy that Liu knew to his core was within its people's grasp."
Liu died totally cut off from everyone but his wife, and was not allowed to receive visits or calls from friends or other family members, Genser said.
"As a further affront to dignity, he wasn't he allowed to be alone with his wife—a Chinese security official was in the room with them around the clock and even when he died," Genser also has pointed out.
Thor Halvorsson, the president of the Human Rights Foundation, said Liu's only crime was organizing a petition to ask the Chinese government to respect freedom of expression, individual liberty, and human rights.
"Liu was already a hero but the Chinese tyrannical regime has transformed him into a martyr," Halvorsson said. "His name is already well-recognized in democratic countries and we are certain that his name will spread inside China."
"It is inspiring and speaks volumes about the power of his ideas and principles that one of the richest, most powerful governments in the world was so afraid of Liu Xiaobo, a university professor, that they marshaled every imaginable resource to extinguish his spirit. He is finally free. And so long as individuals are willing to die for such principles liberty will never perish."
U.S. officials joined his family and activists in lamenting his death and honoring his legacy as a human rights champion.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed "heartfelt condolences" to his family and loved ones and called on the Chinese government to release his wife from house arrest and allow her to depart China "according to her wishes."
"Mr. Liu dedicated his life to the betterment of his country and humankind, and to the pursuit of justice and liberty," Tillerson said in a statement. "In his fight for freedom, equality and constitutional rule in China, Liu Xiaobo embodied the human spirit that the Nobel Prize rewards. In his death, he has only reaffirmed the Nobel Committee's selection."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) also expressed deep concern about Liu Xia's fate and livelihood after her husband's death. Cruz said he is encouraged that the Norwegian Nobel Institute has found a way for Liu Xia to be able to inherit the $1.5 million award for the Nobel Peace Prize her husband was never able to collect but urged his colleagues to remain focused on freeing her from Chinese house arrest.
"Today the world lost a hero of liberty and freedom," he said in a statement. "Ever since leaving the safety and comfort of America to lead the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Dr. Liu sealed his fate as a persistent focus of persecution by the authoritarian PRC."
"From 'reeducation through labor' and deprivation of property to unjust imprisonment to physical abuse, Dr. Liu bore the brunt of the Communist Party's wrath for daring to challenge their immoral system of political oppression," he said, adding that Liu's anti-communist manifesto calling for freedom and human justice "reverberates today more than ever."
Two doctors—one American and one German—visited Liu in China over the weekend. Afterward they said he could be safely transported abroad for treatment, including radiotherapy, at their hospitals. The doctors said these treatments could extend Liu's life by several weeks and reduce the pain that he feels during his remaining days.
"However, the medical evaluation would have to take place as quickly as possible," they said, citing his family's desire for him to receive the remainder of his care in Germany or the United States where they could be at his bedside.
Liu was a writer and poet imprisoned for advocating for broad political reforms and greater human rights in China. He was first imprisoned in connection with the violently quashed 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his writings during his final 11-year prison sentence.
Chinese authorities prohibited Liu's family from attending the prize ceremony in Norway, and officials placed the medal and diploma on an empty chair in their absence.