Taipei, July 9 (CNA) Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Sunday urged China to unconditionally release China's first Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia and allow Liu, who has been diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer, to receive the best possible medical care.
The DPP said Liu Xiaobo has campaigned with non-violent means for democracy in China for 30 years. "Fearless in his calls for Chinese democracy, freedom and human rights, Liu is now stricken with late-stage liver cancer and his health faces immediate danger," said the DPP, calling on Beijing to restore Liu's physical and spiritual freedom.
The DPP said, before 1986, several Taiwanese freedom and democracy activists were also persecuted by the authoritarian Kuomintang (KMT) government, "so we have the same feeling as Liu about the pain and scars of the past."
"Citizens' pursuit of freedom and democracy is a universal value that should not be trampled on; in a mature and civilized country, there should be no political prisoners," it said.
Taiwan's government has expressed its willingness to "provide possible assistance" to Liu and his family after a DPP lawmaker and others urged China to allow Liu to come to Taiwan to receive medical treatment, saying the island is ready to welcome the ailing human rights activist.
"Taiwan's civil and government sectors are ready," said Yu Mei-nu, a lawmaker from the DPP, after Liu and his wife were reported to have applied to the Chinese authorities for permission to seek medical treatment overseas.
Yu is also head of the Parliamentary Cross-Party Group on International Human Rights.
