China suspends treatment for activist Liu Xiaobo

The First Hospital of China Medical University on Friday said it has stopped using cancer-fighting drugs to treat Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo to avoid overwhelming his liver as his condition worsens. A statement on the hospital’s website said the medical team treating Liu stopped using an inhibitor drug used in treating advanced liver cancer. Doctors also suspended a traditional Chinese anti-tumor treatment and added low-molecular heparin to treat blood clots developing in his left leg. The hospital announced in a similar statement Thursday that doctors detected levels of a natural waste product in his body, signaling a decline in his liver function. Doctors diagnosed Liu with liver cancer in May while he served an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion. The activist participated in the 1989 pro-democracy movement and wrote a manifesto in 2009 that called for an end to the one-party regime. A Chinese court on Friday sentenced another activist, Liu Shaoming, to four and a half years in prison on similar charges of subverting state power. Authorities arrested Shaoming in 2015 after he published his personal account of the 1989 crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. He has remained in custody since then.