China activists mark Nobel laureate's death

Beijing: Five years after the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo while in custody, activists in China have been forced to mark his death anniversary mostly in private, due to the ongoing ban on public references to him, media reports said. A friend of Liu's, who only gave the pseudonym Gu Tian, said some people had found ways to mark the anniversary despite a ban on the topic on social media platforms, RFA reported.

"Xiaobo passed away five years ago. He was a very good and honest person, who could see beyond the basic concept of the Chinese nation and China," Gu told RFA. "He fought back against an autocratic regime," he said.

Some people took to Twitter, which requires circumvention tools to access from mainland China, to leave messages commemorating Xiaobo's death at the age of 61 from advanced liver cancer, while serving an 11-year jail term for "incitement to subvert state power", RFA reported.

An account named for rights lawyer Yu Wensheng said Liu had "sacrificed his life to lead China towards democracy".

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