我与刘霞的交往：刘敏在国会听证会上的证词

刘 敏

　　我和丈夫余杰从1999年认识刘晓波夫妇，此后我们两对夫妇成为非常亲密的朋友。

　　刘晓波和刘霞是90年代初开始恋爱的。1989年六四屠杀之后，刘晓波第一次入狱，后来第一次婚姻破裂。出狱之后，刘晓波和刘霞陷入热恋。这段时间，刘晓波经历了第二次、第三次入狱。在刘晓波被送到大连劳动教养期间，刘霞每个月从北京去探望刘晓波，三年多她奔波了三十八次，每次乘坐十多个小时的火车。北京与大连之间来回一趟的距离近两千公里。

　　后来，经过反复争取，他们在狱中举行了婚礼。刘霞后来告诉我，惟一的庆祝是一顿简单的午餐——劳教院的食堂为他们炒了两个菜。在这三年里，这是他们惟一一次同桌吃饭。在那段时间里，刘霞每天都要写一张卡片，挂在自家的墙上。三年，积攒了一千多张卡片。

　　刘霞承受的压力比刘晓波还要大。她原来是一名与政治保持距离的诗人、画家和摄影家，仅仅因为是刘晓波的妻子，就被划入“国家的敌人”的行列。由于长期无法过正常人的生活，她患上了眼疾、内分泌失调、失眠、神经衰弱、皮肤病和严重的忧郁症。每天她都要吃大量的安眠药才能入睡。刘晓波被捕之后，有朋友询问刘霞的睡眠状况如何。她说，刘晓波不在身边，反倒能睡得安稳了。“天花板上早已掉下来一只鞋子。多年来，我就像在等候着另一只鞋子掉下来的那个人一样。如今，这只鞋子终于落下来，我这才感到安心了。”

　　刘霞和刘晓波结婚多年，一直没有孩子。刘霞说：“很早以前，我们俩人就商定不生孩子，不论是男孩女孩，父亲被投入监狱对于他们来说总是件十分残酷的事。所以，我们现在还是丁克家庭。”

　　2008年12月刘晓波被捕，2009年圣诞节刘晓波被判处11年徒刑，后来被送到辽宁锦州监狱服刑。如果刘晓波坐满刑期，刘霞将在北京与锦州之间往返一百多次。北京到锦州往返约一千公里，加起来将是超过十二万公里的路途！

　　刘霞告诉我，刘晓波在狱中待遇很差，饮食单一，几乎天天吃水煮土豆，引发胃病，每次见面都要求刘霞多送一些食品进去。普通囚犯的家人每个星期都能送入一些食品，而刘晓波的家人则每月才能探监一次并送入食品。

　　刘霞还告诉我，锦州冬天天气严寒，狱中暖气不足，刘晓波感到非常寒冷，要求刘霞为他送去厚毛裤。2010年9月，刘霞探监之后回到北京，委托我帮她买毛裤，然后她下次探监的时候送进去。

　　没有想到，2010年10月8日，刘晓波获得诺贝尔和平奖的消息传出。之前一天晚上，我还与刘霞一起吃饭和购物，我帮她挑选了一件衣服。她嫌贵。我对她说，要是晓波获奖了，你要代表他去领奖，你还没有一件正装呢。她才买下了那件衣服。然而，她随即失去了自由，无法代表丈夫去奥斯陆领奖。

　　就在刘晓波获奖的消息传出后5天，我的丈夫余杰完成了在美国南加州大学的讲学，匆匆回到北京，因为他要完成《刘晓波传》。余杰刚到北京，立即被秘密警察软禁在家。

　　刚开始一个星期，我可以自由地去公司上班。我为刘晓波买到毛裤，那时联系不上刘霞，我便与刘霞的弟弟联系，将毛裤带给他。结果，刘霞的弟弟探望刘霞出来，被警察搜身，警察从他身上搜出刘霞写的一张纸条，上面有我的名字和电话。于是，那天，我刚下班回家，立即被软禁在家。从此，我与丈夫一起被软禁在家，直到12月中旬。余杰于12月9日被警察从家中绑架到郊区，遭受酷刑折磨，险些死去。随后我也失去了工作。

　　2012年1月，我们一家三口终于逃离中国，来到美国。我们获得了自由，但我们始终惦记着刘晓波和刘霞的处境。特别是刘霞被软禁在家、与世隔绝了两年多，她的身体和精神状况都让人担忧。以我的切身体验，我和丈夫被软禁在家两个月，我们夫妻在一起，但那种被切断所有联系方式、不能离开家门一步、见不到一个外人的生活，让我们差不多要疯了。而刘霞是一个人，且被软禁了两年多！那种痛苦是难以忍受的。我期望美国政府，尤其是同样是诺贝尔和平奖得主的奥巴马总统，直接向中国政府发出强烈的呼吁，要求他们立刻释放刘晓波和刘霞。

Yu Jie’s Wife, Liu Min, on Liu Xia

My husband Yu Jie and I met Liu Xiaobo and his wife in 1999. Shortly after we became very close friends.

Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia began their romantic relationship in the early 1990s. After the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned for the first time, resulting in the breakup of his first marriage. After his release, Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia fell deeply in love. During this time, Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned for a second, and then a third time. In the period when Liu Xiaobo was sent to Dalian to be re-educated through labor, Liu Xia went to see him every month from Beijing, traveling back and forth 38 times over three years. The trip between Beijing and Dalian was 1,250 miles.

Then, after fighting for it time and again, they had a wedding in prison. Afterward Liu Xia told me their only celebration was a simple lunch: the labor camp cafeteria made a couple of dishes for them. In these three years, it was the only time they had eaten at the same table.

The pressure faced by Liu Xia was even greater than that on Liu Xiaobo. She was originally a poet, painter and photographer who kept her distance from politics. Simply by being Liu Xiaobo’s wife, she was included on the list of “enemies of the state.” Permanently unable to live a normal person’s life, she developed eye problems, endocrine disorders, insomnia, nervous breakdowns, skin illnesses, and severe depression. She had to take large doses of sleeping pills to fall asleep every night. After Liu Xiaobo was arrested, a friend asked her about how she was sleeping. She said, now that Liu Xiaobo is gone, I can actually sleep more peacefully. “A shoe had fallen down from the ceiling long ago. For many years, I was like the person waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now, the shoe has finally dropped, and I can finally feel at peace.”

Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo have been married for many years, and they have never had children. Liu Xia said, “A long time ago, we agreed not to have children. Having a father in prison in any case is a cruel thing to a boy or a girl. So, we are still a DINK family.”

In December 2008 Liu Xiaobo was arrested; on Christmas, 2009, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and was later sent to the prison in Jinzhou, Liaoning, to serve his term. If Liu Xiaobo is to serve his term in full, Liu Xia will have traveled back and forth between Beijing and Jinzhou more than a hundred times. The trip between Beijing and Jinzhou is approximately 600 miles. In total, her trek will have been more than 8,000 miles!

Liu Xia also told me about the severe winters in Jinzhou, and because of the lack of heating in prison, Liu Xiaobo felt very cold and asked Liu Xia to bring him some thick wool pants. In September 2010, after visiting the prison Liu Xia returned to Beijing and asked me to buy wool pants for her, so she could bring them the next time she visited.

To our surprise, on October 8, 2010, the news of Liu Xiaobo receiving the Nobel Peace Prize broke. The night before, I even went out eating and shopping with Liu Xia, and picked out a piece of clothing for her. She said it was too expensive. I said, if Xiaobo wins, you have to go and accept the award on his behalf, and you don’t even have any formalwear. So she finally bought it. Yet, she lost her freedom shortly after, and could not go to Oslo to accept the award on her husband’s behalf.

Just five days after news of Liu Xiaobo receiving the Nobel Prize became public, my husband Yu Jie finished a lecture at the University of Southern California and hurried back to Beijing because he wanted to finish Liu Xiaobo’s biography. As soon as Yu Jie arrived in Beijing, he was immediately placed under house arrest by the secret police.

The first week in the beginning, I could still go to work freely. I had bought the wool pants for Liu Xiaobo, but I could not get in contact with Liu Xia, and so I got in touch with Liu Xia’s younger brother and brought the pants to him. Subsequently, when Liu Xia’s brother came out from visiting her, he was searched by the police, who found on him a note written by Liu Xia with my name and telephone number on it. And so, that day, as soon as I came home from work, I was immediately placed under house arrest. Since then, my husband and I had been under house arrest, until mid-December. On December 9 Yu Jie was kidnapped by the police from home to the outskirts of town, and was beaten and tortured, and almost died. Soon after I lost my job as well.

In January 2012, our family of three finally escaped China, and came to America. Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia’s predicaments weigh on our minds constantly, especially Liu Xia’s being under house arrest and isolated from the world for over two years. We worry about her physical and mental state. In my own personal experience, when my husband and I were put under house arrest for two months, we were together, but a life where all our means of contact were cut off, where we could not take one step out of our own door, where we could not see a single other person on the outside, drove us nearly insane. And Liu Xia is alone, under arrest for more than two years! That kind of suffering is unbearable. I hope the American government, especially President Obama, who is also a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, can personally and directly put out a strong call to the Chinese government, and demand that they release Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia immediately.