Wife of China’s jailed Nobel Laureate suspected of suffering from severe depression
The wife of jailed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo is unwell under house arrest and possibly suffering from severe depression, but refuses to seek medical help as she is afraid of further punishment, her friends said on Monday. The accounts from Liu Xia’s friends shed a rare light into her condition since being held at home after Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Prize in 2010. They also come two days ahead of a visit to China by US Vice President Joe Biden, during which human rights will likely be raised amid a broader crackdown on dissent and freedom of speech and assembly. Liu Xia wrote to prominent human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping in August that she was “close to going crazy, close to mental collapse” during the time of the trial of her brother, Liu Hui, on fraud charges, Mo told reporters.
