Liu Xia’s phone cut; unable to met Norway diplomat
13 Oct 2010
The wife of jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo said today she was prevented from meeting with a Norwegian diplomat as authorities kept her under tight house arrest.
Liu Xia has been largely confined to her home since Friday when the Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded this year's prize to her dissident husband for advocating political reform and respect for human rights in China. She cannot go even grocery shopping except with an escort in an official car.
"Yesterday, a Norwegian diplomat came to offer support for me and was barred outside the main gates," she said on her Twitter account.
Liu Xia said on Tuesday she hoped to travel to Norway to accept the award for her husband, who was sentenced last December to 11 years in jail on subversion charges after co-authoring "Charter 08", which calls for bold political reform. (See: Liu Xiaobo's wife fears she may not be allowed to collect his Nobel) However, given the official attitude, it is highly unlikely to be allowed to do so.
Liu Xia has been communicating with the outside world via Twitter after her cellphone was cut off earlier in the week. A replacement phone now has also been cut off, Liu said in a tweet late Tuesday.
"I had the phone for only a day and already it has been cut off by the hoodlums," she said in the one-line post.
