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Liu Xia, the wife of the imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, is under house arrest amid rising anger in Beijing over the dissident's prize. The wife of the imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo fears the Chinese government will prevent her from collecting the peace prize on her husband's behalf amid rising anger in Beijing at the announcement.

In a telephone interview with the Guardian, Liu Xia said police officers had surrounded her home and warned her that she could not leave without a minder.

"They have told me not to go out, not to visit friends. If I want to see my parents or buy food, I can only go in their car," she said. "I don't even talk to my neighbours because I don't want to get them into trouble."

During a prison visit on Sunday, Liu Xiaobo asked her to collect the prize at the ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on 10 December. But she was doubtful she would get as far as the airport.

"I can't even get out of my home, how could I go out of the country?"

The Nobel prize committee said they hoped one of the couple would attend the ceremony, but it would go ahead without the winner as it did for Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former Polish president Lech Walesa.

The Chinese government today maintained its attack on the Nobel decision and its supporters. "If some people try to change China's political system in this way, and try to stop the Chinese people from moving forward, that is obviously making a mistake," the foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told the Associated Press. "This is not only disrespect for China's judicial system, but also puts a big question mark on their true intentions." (guardian.co.uk)