BEIJING: Under the shadow of heavy police surveillance, around 20 close friends of China’s late Nobel laureate and dissident Liu Xiaobo have held a defiant private memorial in Beijing.

Since the prominent democracy activist died of liver cancer in custody last week, his Chinese supporters say they have been barred from leaving their homes or organising commemorative events, while censors have blocked online tributes.

But on the seventh day following Liu’s death — an important milestone for the deceased in traditional Chinese culture — the group gathered on Wednesday evening for a two-and-half-hour ceremony in which they shared memories of the man.

“Xiaobo is gone, but we are still alive,” Jin Yan, one of the attendees, said at the memorial, according to a statement released by the organisers on Thursday.

“During the democracy movement in Eastern Europe, many people were killed or sent to the mental hospital. But they had a saying within the movement: between the living and the dead, there’s a moral contract. The living have an obligation to complete what the dead started.”

Public gatherings to commemorate the deaths of prominent dissidents are rare. In the past, those who took part in memorials have been subjected to questioning, detention and in some cases even charged with the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.

A photo of the event in Beijing shows around 20 people in a room, holding candles and photos of the bespectacled writer.

An attendee who asked not to be named said state security officers stood guard outside the building, while some mourners were driven to the site in police cars. Still others were prevented by police from participating in the memorial.

“[Liu] lived just 60 years, with the last 30 years full of frustrations and suffering,” said Xu Xiao, another attendee, according to the statement. “Rather than say that the regime is too cruel, we may say that Liu Xiaobo was too brave.”

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2017