China invites foreign cancer specialists to treat Liu Xiaobo

The Chinese government has agreed to invite foreign medical experts, including from the US and Germany, to treat the jailed dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo for cancer amid calls for him to receive treatment abroad.
The hospital where Liu is receiving treatment in Shenyang in Liaoning province will "invite the most authoritative international therapists from the US, Germany and other countries to China" to join a team of Chinese doctors treating Liu, a statement on the city's justice bureau website said today.
The invitation to foreign doctors was made at the request of his family, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported today.

Liu, China's most famous political prisoner, was sentenced to 11 years behind bars in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power". He had signed a charter with other rights activists calling for sweeping political reforms in China opposing the the ruling Communist Party's rule.
He was granted medical parole after he was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer in May.
His friends, relatives and rights groups have criticised the authorities for providing insufficient care to Liu behind bars.

One official media report even said he would be treated by experts of Chinese traditional medicine.
Media reports quoted Chinese officials telling diplomats from Germany, the US and the European Union on Friday that Liu could not be moved abroad due to his condition.

The United States and the European Union have called on Beijing to allow 61-year-old Liu to choose where he wants to be treated.
China's Foreign Ministry has so far dismissed concerns from other countries about Liu, at least publicly, saying it was an internal matter for China.