Activists accuse China of hiding Liu Xiaobo’s widow

Chinese activists have accused the government of hiding Liu Xia after her husband died from liver cancer on July 13 in state custody. Xia’s U.S.-based lawyer, Jared Genser, in a statement said she has been “held incommunicado in an unknown location by Chinese authorities” since her husband’s funeral on July 15. Xia has remained under house arrest without charge since her husband, Liu Xiaobo, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist and Xia’s friend, told Radio Free Asia activists in the country have not received any news of Xia’s location since reports that state security police sent her on a forced vacation in the southwestern province of Yunnan. “They want to keep her from having any contact with local people, and they also want to prevent her from attempting suicide or going on a hunger strike,” Hu said. Genser called for an urgent intervention from the United Nations working group on enforced disappearances.