NEW YORK\u2014Reports that Chinese poet Liu Xia, who is spending her seventh year under house without charge, has made rare and risky contact with a fellow writer to lament her failing her health raise fears for her life under conditions of stringent confinement and isolation, PEN America said in statement today.<\/p>\n
According to the\u00a0Hong Kong Free Press<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Liu was able to reach her friend and dissident Tibetan writer\u00a0Tsering Woeser<\/span><\/a> by phone this week to say she was \u201cunwell.\u201d Woeser reports that Liu told her, \u201cI am drunk, and am just testing to see if my telephone works, and see who I can talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n Liu<\/span><\/a>, a poet, artist, and founding member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, has been under extralegal house arrest since her husband\u00a0Liu Xiaobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0won the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2010\u00a0while serving an eleven-year prison\u00a0sentence\u00a0for his role in the Charter 08 movement.\u00a0Liu Xia\u00a0is unable to receive visitors and\u00a0has extremely limited access to the outside world, with strictly controlled outings and limited access to phone, internet, or postal services (which are monitored). Over the past several years, she has suffered from insomnia, depression, and heart trouble, and has only occasionally been able to receive medical attention.<\/p>\n \u201cThe latest news about Ms. Liu\u2019s condition is extremely troubling,\u201d said\u00a0Karin Karlekar<\/strong>, Director of Free Expression at Risk Programs at PEN America. \u201cFor more than six years, she has been subjected to severe restrictions on expression and movement, which constitute jail-like conditions, despite never having been charged or convicted of any crime. Chinese authorities must immediately lift her house arrest, end her isolation, and allow her to receive adequate medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n PEN America<\/strong> stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world.\u00a0\u00a0Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.<\/em><\/p>\n CONTACT: Source: https:\/\/pen.org\/press-release\/liu-xia-calls-woesser\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK\u2014Reports that Chinese poet Liu X … Continue reading
\nSarah Edkins, Communications Director: sedkins@pen.org, +1.646.779.4830<\/p>\n