China's liberals quietly fight efforts to erase Liu Xiaobo legacy

Pro-democracy activists continue their sit-in demanding the release of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, outside China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, China July 12, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

SHENYANG, China (Reuters) - As the hospital treating Liu Xiaobo says his organs and breathing have begun to fail from cancer, few in China outside a small circle of dissidents know about the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and his lifetime pursuit of liberal democratic reform.

Even other patients at the First Hospital of China Medical University in the northeastern city of Shenyang, where Liu is being treated, seem not to know they are sharing the facilities with a world famous dissident.