BEIJING — Ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, literary luminaries such as Margaret Atwood and Philip Roth are calling on China to free the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. A letter issued through the writer’s organization PEN America asks that China remove restrictions on Liu Xia’s freedom of movement and allow her to meet freely with whomever she wishes. “Liu Xia has undergone great suffering for many years, simply for being the wife of a man that China has deemed to be a dissident,” the letter said. China has dismissed all previous calls for her freedom, including from the United Nations’ human rights chief. Trump arrives in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on civil liberties under the strict authoritarian rule of the Communist Party.

Source: National Post November 06, 2017 05:26 UTC