Dec. 10, 2013 the International Human Rights Day
Issued by:
Washington, D.C. – According to Reuters and other media, as well as her own letters that have been smuggled out of China, Ms. Liu Xia, the wife of the imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo, is suffering from severe depression and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The source of her stress is not only her husband’s imprisonment and the persecution of her family, but the fact that the Chinese government has kept her under house arrest ever since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize three years ago.
During these three years her movements have been severely restricted. She cannot go anywhere without a police escort. No one can visit her home. No one can call her and she cannot call out. Even the letters that she and her husband write to each other every week are confiscated.
Liu Xia has never been charged with a crime, yet she is living in a prison.
John F. Kennedy stated that, “When one man is enslaved, all are not free.” We cannot ignore Liu Xia’s illegal detention.
On this International Human Rights Day, we, Liuxiaobo.net, the Friends of Liu Xiaobo and Citizen Power for China/Initiatives for China, are launching an initiative -” Saving Liu Xia 2014 “– to raise awareness of her plight, show her the world is standing with her and to pressure the Chinese Government to stop persecuting her.
Because of her house arrest, Liu Xia has disappeared from all social life, so the “Saving Liu Xia 2014” will start off with a missing person poster campaign aimed at getting Liu Xia out of isolation and back into her world. The campaign will start on December 10, 2013, and you can participate by creating your own Liu Xiao missing persons poster. A template file can be found here: https://liuxiaobo.net
We urge those who care to print it out, add their own words and then post around their workplace, or in other public places. Take a picture of their poster and send it toliuxiaobo.net@gmail.com and we’ll post pictures from around the world that show support for Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo.
We also urge that this message and related info be posted Facebook, wechat, blog, Twitter, Instagram,–everywhere the word can be helped to spread. We hope this strong support for Liu Xia will make the Chinese Government take responsibility!
The hash tag of this campaign is #savingliuxia
Another way to participate is to download the postcard and mail it to governments and friends to raise their awareness.
At the same time, we are launching a prize challenge. We are collecting donations to go toward a prize for the person who can hang a poster as close as possible to Liu Xia’s home in Beijing. Her address is #9 Yuyuantan Road, Building 17, Unit 4, Room 501, Beijing 100038. To compete for the prize, one has submit a photo of the poster that has some identifying background details so we can award the prize to the most ingenious person! The prize information will be updated on the campaign web page located at Liuxiaobo.net
Have you seen her?
She broke no laws, yet lost her freedom;
She is Liu Xia, the wife of jailed Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo;
We miss her.