Liu Xia: free at last but a hostage-in-exile to Beijing´s crackdown
(The Guardian China)

The widow of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo missed a remembrance service in Germany for fear of reprisalsAs hundreds of people gathered in Berlin´s Gethsemane church to remember and celebrate Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo - the writer and Nobel peace prize laureate - on the first anniversary of his death, one slight woman was conspicuous by her absence.His widow, poet Liu Xia, had landed in the German capital just days earlier, after her surprise release from nearly eight years of house arrest in Beijing. But although she has been allowed to leave after years of protests and petitions, she is still not totally free. Berlin-based friend Tienchi Martin-Liao, who had been Liu Xiaobo´s editor, said she was not able to appear in public or speak to media because of worries about her brother Liu Hui, who is still in China. Continue reading...