No word if jailed Chinese Nobel winner, wife met

JINZHOU, China — The wife of an imprisoned Chinese dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize remained out of contact for a second day Sunday, making it hard to confirm whether authorities had allowed her to meet with her husband and tell him about the award.The brother of dissident Liu Xiaobo said that as of Saturday night, authorities had arranged a meeting for Sunday in Jinzhou, the dreary northeastern industrial city where Liu is imprisoned. But the brother, Liu Xiaoxuan, said he had been unable to contact the wife, Liu Xia, or her brother who was traveling with her.The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported that the meeting had taken place, citing another brother saying police confirmed it.The confusion surrounding the meeting underscored the difficult predicament the Chinese government faced over the award to a dissident it brands a criminal.In naming him, the Norwegian-based Nobel committee honored Liu's more than two decades of advocacy for human rights and peaceful democratic change — from the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989 to a manifesto for political reform that he co-authored in 2008 and which led to his latest jail term.While the announcement cheered many in the fractured, persecuted dissident community and brought calls from the U.S., Germany and others for Liu's release, Beijing reacted angrily. It warned Norway's government that relations would suffer, even though the Nobel committee is an independent organization.A slight, 54-year-old literary critic, Liu is in the second year of his 11-year prison term, and it was unclear whether he knew about the Nobel. News of the award has been largely kept out of China's state-controlled media. Chinese regulations allow prisoners one monthly visit with family, and Liu Xia previously said police prohibited her from talking about the Nobel nomination during her visit in September.Liu Xia's cell phone remained cut off. Her husband's lawyer, Shang Baojun, as well as a few close friends said they had not be

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