Is Liu Xia’s misfortune a result of her husband Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel peace prize on 8 October 2010? The answer to that question is obviously yes. The Chinese government has put her under house arrest in Beijing since that night. Her phone and cell phone were disconnected, and she cannot send or receive emails. For more than three years, Chinese authorities have deprived Liu Xia’s basic human rights, freedom of movement, communication and speech.

Liu Xia’s last public appearance was memorable. A friend of the Liu family said that she attempted to visit Liu Xia at #9 South Yuyuantan Road in the Haidian District of Beijing, in the afternoon in October 2013. As usual, Liu Xia’s apartment was being patrolled and under surveillance by plainclothes police. Without thinking further, her friend called “Liu Xia” from outside the apartment. The familiar voice must have aroused Liu Xia’s attention, so she opened her window and looked out. Her friend waved her hands and asked, “How’s Xiaobo?” Liu Xia cried and responded, “Xiaobo is the best in our family.” She continued to sob at the window, and her friend was prohibited from entering her apartment.

Liu Xia’s brief but heartbreaking response is rather meaningful. Liu Xiaobo, her husband, is one of the most well-known political prisoners today. Since he was transferred from the Beijing No 1 Public Security Bureau Detention Center to Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning Province in May 2010, Liu Xia made a long trip by train from Beijing to Jinzhou Prison and took a lot of trouble in order to visit her husband each month. The police officers accompanied her during her trip. Prison authorities permitted her to meet her husband for a half hour at most.

As far as we have learned, before Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xia could hug him at their meetings, even holding hands across the table during conversations under the surveillance of prison guards. Over the past three years, Liu Xia’s visits, though still once a month, have been strictly monitored by the police. The prison guards frequently interrupt the couple’s conversations. Besides general greetings and personal health, Liu Xia is permitted to talk little of other matters. During most of their meetings, they may just stare at each other through the barred window separating them.

In the past three years, Liu Xia has not been allowed to deliver her letters to her husband when visiting him. Liu Xiaobo used to be able to receive his wife’s letters from his lawyers through her younger brother Liu Hui. Now, the prison simply returns the unread letters to her. During the past three months, his lawyer has even been refused visits with him.

In a visit a year ago, Liu Xia wanted to tell Liu Xiaobo that Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012. As the words “Mo Yan” slipped out, the prison guards broke up the conversation. Hence, Liu Xia cannot know whether or not Liu Xiaobo has learned about Mo Yan’s win or not. He also does not know that Chinese authorities sentenced Liu Xia’s younger brother, Liu Hui, to eleven years in prison for charges of “financial fraud” in June, 2013.

Chinese authorities allow Liu Xia only very limited privileges, such as a meal once a week at her parents’ home. Besides her parents, it’s hard for Liu Xia to face any other family because Liu Hui’s imprisonment is widely understood as retaliation against him for helping Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo.

Liu Xia’s younger brother, Liu Hui, had financially supported Liu Xia and been a messenger between Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo’s lawyers for limited communication with Liu Xiaobo in prison over the last three years. The Chinese government’s prosecution and imprisonment of Liu Hui made Liu Xia’s situation worse and worse. She lost not only the financial support, but also the chance of connecting with her husband.

Last June, the Beijing Public Security Bureau issued an official notice forbidding Liu Xia from organizing photography and painting exhibitions in China. Liu Xia, an artist and poet, produced over 20 paintings, which are now in her friends’ possession secretly.

In 1998, Liu Xia wrote this poem to describe her journey of reaching her second-time imprisoned husband at Dalian in northeast China:

The train runs to the concentration camp
over my body, sobbing,
but I could not reach your hand

Liu Xia once described herself as “a person of few tears”. Although she is “extremely fragile”, as she acknowledges, outsiders cannot easily detect such a quality from her. “Xiaobo is the best in our family” is Liu Xia’s stoic reply. But her family reports that Liu Xia is exhausted and depressed after three years of isolation. She has lost her appetite and is totally depressed. Liu Xia is no longer “a person of few tears”.

On 23 April 2013, when Liu Xia went to the court hearing of her younger brother’s first trial in Beijing, she had temporary freedom and an opportunity to speak to journalists and lawyers. She asked them to tell the world, “If people say I’m free, tell them that I am not free.”

Since June 2013, Liu Xia has been declining mentally and physically, unable to withstand the extreme isolation of her long-term house arrest. She is losing the ability to describe her situation.

The last clip of Liu Xia’s life, a video published before her house arrest, was a record of her speech and reading presented at an event for the 50th anniversary of Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International during its Congress in Tokyo. On 29 September 2010, during the “Free Liu Xiao” event at Waseda University, the video clip was screened to over a thousand audience members. When the light was focused on Liu Xia’s calm and pale face, her voice was low and slow before a quiet conference hall. Liu Xia’s last words brought tears to people’s eyes:

During Xiaobo’s re-education through labour for three years from 8 October 1996 to 8 October 1999, I wrote him more than 300 letters and he wrote me 2-3 million words. After our home was raided several times, his writings generally disappeared.
This is our life.

Liu Xia’s situation is extremely worrisome. Her adversity could easily be ignored when the international community has been concerned mainly with her imprisoned husband. Liu Xiaobo, who might be released in 2020, doesn’t know the depth and details of the physical and mental turmoil of his wife. Because of her depression and poor appetite, she lost her will to live on. Her poor health makes people worry for her – can she hang on till 2020? We believe Liu Xia’s life is at stake.

She needs the world to reach out to rescue her.

We strongly urge the Chinese government to stop restricting Liu Xia’s freedom. She should have the freedom to call, fax, and email; to shop for herself; to visit her parents and friends; to receive proper medical treatment; to exchange letters with her husband; and to hold photographic exhibitions in China.

We are here to plead with the world: raise your voices for Liu Xia and demand that the Chinese government release her from house arrest.