Word: liu
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...Liu's trial had already prompted close scrutiny from several western governments, including the United States. Diplomats had not been allowed into his trial on Wednesday. On Tuesday U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said, "As far as we can tell, this man's crime was simply signing a piece of paper that aspires to a more open and participatory form of government. That is not a crime." China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday called all criticism of Liu's trial "gross interference in China's internal affairs." (See how Beijing clamped down after the release of Charter...
Human rights groups say the length of Liu's sentence is the longest they've seen for a subversion charge, a harsh punishment meant to warn other activists. "The explicit message being sent is: we are brooking no challenge, no further dissent of this nature and if you continue, this is the consequence. It's the old 'kill the chicken to scare the monkeys' routine," says Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based official with the Dui Hua Foundation, a human-rights group. "The implicit message or unintended message is the government is very, very afraid of allowing any sort...
...verdict was completely outrageous," says Liu's wife, Liu Xia. "I have nothing to say to this unreasonable government." She was allowed to attend the sentencing Friday with her brother (she had been barred from attending the trial on Wednesday). Liu Xia said she spoke briefly with her husband after the sentencing about family matters. She says that he was composed throughout the hearing. She expects he will appeal the verdict, but no decision has been made...
...Liu, 53, was a visiting scholar at Columbia University when the Tiananmen Square demonstrations gripped China in the summer of 1989. He returned home to join student hunger strikers, and was jailed for 20 months after the government's bloody crackdown. He was later sentenced to three years in a labor camp beginning in 1996 for further questioning China's one-party system. Along with Hu Jia, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on a subversion charge in 2008, Liu was one of the most prominent dissidents active in mainland China...
...Liu's conviction and sentencing, say human rights groups, is evidence that beneath China's pretensions of modernity is the old, intolerant authoritarianism, albeit gussied up with legalisms. "The Chinese government's decision to sentence Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison on subversion charges is a travesty of justice and reflects yet again the government's willingness to use the law as a weapon to silence dissent," Phelim Kine, an Asia researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch, wrote after the verdict. "The severity of Liu's sentence puts the lie to the government's lofty rhetoric...