Activists in Hong Kong mourn Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo’s death

HONG KONG — Hours after Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo died of organ failure while in government custody, President Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him “a terrific guy” at a press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were far less generous in their approximation of the Chinese president as they gathered outside Beijing’s liaison office Thursday to mourn the death of the beloved human rights figure and decry the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms.

Nearly 100 people gathered on the city’s streets to hold a vigil for the teacher turned international human rights figure. Activists also demanded the release of Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010 despite never having been charged or convicted with a crime.

Lee Cheuk-yan, a former lawmaker and the ex-chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance, which organized the vigil, said people were there to “show the Chinese government that we are all Liu Xiaobo and we will continue to fight for democracy.”

Liu died Thursday at age 61. After nine years in prison, he was transferred to a hospital in Shenyang in late June to be treated for liver cancer. With his condition worsening quickly, foreign doctors who visited him urged that he be treated abroad, but Beijing denied his request to leave the country.

In 2009, Liu, a writer and professor, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion of the state after helping to write a manifesto demanding freedom and democracy.

Human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch mourned Liu’s death, saying in statements that it revealed the Xi administration’s “ruthlessness” and brutal crackdown on human rights activists who are “systematically subjected to monitoring, harassment, intimidation, arrest and detention, often outside of formal detention facilities.”

Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty called Liu a “giant of human rights.”

“For decades, he fought tirelessly to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms in China,” Shetty said. “He did so in the face of the most relentless and often brutal opposition from the Chinese government.”

Dozens solemnly waited in line to sign a memorial book for Liu as police stood watch. His death comes less than two weeks after the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from British to Chinese rule. Beijing has continued to tighten its grip on the semi-autonomous city, with activists protesting the steady deterioration of Hong Kong’s freedoms.

“The Hong Kong people will see that the freedom of one person was denied,” Lee said. “Then how about the seven million people in Hong Kong? We have the same fate as Liu Xiaobo.”