**The European Union and United States have called for the immediate release of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.**After a year in detention, Mr Liu’s lawyers say he has now been charged with subversion.
Large numbers of Chinese intellectuals who signed a petition calling for radical reform in China - Charter 08 - have expressed solidarity with Mr Liu.
A founding signatory of the Charter, he faces an imminent trial and likely conviction.
“The EU calls on the Chinese government to unconditionally release Liu Xiaobo and to end the harassment and detention,” the 27-nation bloc’s presidency said in a statement.
The US State Department said it had repeatedly raised Liu’s case with Chinese officials.
“We urge the government of China to release Liu Xiaobo immediately and to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens who peacefully express their desire for internationally recognised freedoms,” the US state department said in a statement.
Critical essays
In a statement posted on a website based outside China, news.boxun.com, a large number of signatories to Charter 08 said they were willing to be punished alongside Mr Lui.
One of the signatories, Xu Youyu, told the BBC Chinese Service: “If Liu Xiaobo is guilty, then we all are.”
Mr Xu said he was confident the authorities would not arrest hundreds of people.
Mr Liu’s lawyer said last week prosecutors had decided to try his client on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” for publishing essays critical of the ruling Communist Party.
Mr Liu is a writer and former university professor who has spent much of his time since being a leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests either in prison or under various forms of house arrest or close monitoring.
He has continued to write and publish on the internet, calling for democratic pluralism in China.