India maintains studied silence on Liu Xiaobo’s death

Liu Xiaobo, the most famous face of democracy China, breathed his last in custody, Shenyang city authorities announced on Thursday. The 61-year old academic, human rights advocate and a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2010 was battling liver cancer and died of multiple organs’ failure, four days after a request by a team of German and American doctors to move him overseas in face of Liu’s failing health was rejected by Chinese authorities.

Liu had been doing a 11-year jail-term since 2009, after he was convicted of trying to overthrow the state. He, along with other intellectuals and prominent personalities, authored Charter 08 in 2008, a document widely seen as a blueprint for a multi-party democracy in China. The charter calls for amending the constitution, election of public officials, freedom of religion, speech and association among its various demands. While he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to trying to bring about more freedom in China, his political views earned him many enemies in the powerful Communist Party of China (CPC).

While major international powers and peace advocates condemned Chinese authorities for Liu’s death, New Delhi has maintained a studied silence on the passing away of China’s democracy icon. The reluctance of India to condemn Beijing may be a missed opportunity for the Modi government to corner China on its atrocious human rights record, considering that Beijing, mostly through its state run media, doesn’t pass up any chance to show India down. The two Asian powers have been a locked in a peaceful, yet tense, border standoff for more than a month.

But global players, even though with lesser strategic stakes at hand, haven’t been as generous as India.

US’ ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called Liu a “true champion of freedom and an inspiration to those longing for democracy around the world.”

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer informed that Donald Trump was “deeply saddened” by the death of Liu, a day after US President was panned by human rights’ advocates for praising China’s Xi Jinping during a joint press briefing in Paris.

Britain’s foreign secretary Boris Johnson offered his condolences to the widow of Liu, Liu Xia, and issued a strongly-worded message to Beijing, “Liu Xiaobo should have been allowed to choose his own medical treatment overseas, which the Chinese authorities repeatedly denied him. This was wrong and I now urge them to lift all restrictions on his widow, Liu Xia.”

Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, expressed regret that Liu and wife’s wish to “travel to Germany” for his treatment remained unfulfilled.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee held China responsible for Liu’s “premature death.”

"We find it deeply disturbing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill," the committee head told in a statement to Reuters.

Beijing has, however, rejected international criticism of its treatment of Liu. The state-backed Global Times, in an op-ed titled Liu Xiaobo a victim led astray by West, criticised external interference in China’s internal affairs. “By granting him the Nobel Prize, the West has kidnapped Liu,” Global Times said.

Never mind that Liu was only the second Nobel laureate to have died in custody since 1938, when a Nobel Prize winner met a similar fate under Nazi Germany, the authorities are censuring public display of sympathies for Liu on social media.