The Chinese hospital treating sick Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo said on Saturday that his cancer is in the final stages and that a German and US doctor had seen him and offered “full approval” of their treatment of him.
Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition known as “Charter 08” calling for sweeping political reforms.
He was recently moved from jail to a hospital in China’s northeastern city of Shenyang to be treated for late-stage liver cancer and the hospital said it had invited doctors from the United States and Germany to help with Liu’s treatment.
In a short statement, the hospital said that Joseph M. Herman of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre in the United States and Markus W Büchler of Germany’s University of Heidelberg had seen Liu on Saturday afternoon, a consultation also attended by the Chinese experts treating him.
The team listened to his medical history, heard a report on his treatment, visited Liu and met his relatives and then discussed his illness, the hospital said.
“The US and Germany experts fully approved of the treatment by the national experts group and what they had done,” it added.
The patient has received a high level of care, but he has late-stage liver cancer which has spread and is in its final stages, the hospital said, adding it is looking at medical options to raise his chances of survival.
Calls have grown from rights groups, international bodies and western governments for China to allow Liu to travel with his wife Liu Xia to be treated overseas.
Diplomatic sources in Beijing say China has been nervous that the concerns over Liu could overshadow President Xi Jinping’s appearance at a summit of the Group of 20 nations in Hamburg, Germany, which ends later on Saturday.
