Two foreign doctors who visited terminally ill Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo said he could be safely transported abroad for further treatment, contradicting the assessment of his Chinese hospital that he is too sick to travel.

Mr Liu, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2010, contracted liver cancer while serving an 11-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power”. He was transferred to a hospital on medical parole in late May but remains a prisoner, which has led to international calls for his release. 

“While a degree of risk always exists in the movement of any patient, both physicians believe Mr Liu can be safely transported with appropriate medical evacuation care and support,” said Joseph M. Herman of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Markus W Büchler of University of Heidelberg in a joint statement.