No one knows where Liu Xia is, but police guard her empty apartment

No response to foreign journalists ' request for news. Friends say they have no information about Liu Xiaobo's wife and believe sh is being kept under police control in the southern Yunnan province

Beijing (AsiaNews) - Liu Xia, Liu Xiaobo's wife, is officially free. On July 15, authorities also released a video of her near the sea in the coastal city of Dalian, with the ashes of the late Nobel Peace Laureate. But since then, her friends say they have had no news and believe she is being kept under police control in the southern province of Yunnan.

However, despite the fact her home (in the picture) in Beijing is empty, is being guarded by plain clothes police agents. Four are located in the small park outside the house. They are around a stone table surrounded by shrubs and check all those who approach the gate.

"Where are you going?" asked one of them, wearing a "special" uniform of two middle-aged women who approached yesterday. "We live here," replied one, with the tone of someone  used to the question. And what are you doing here? You do not live in this neighborhood," said a uniformed officer to the journalist who had approached, motioning him to leave.

First, a four-person foreign TV crew, coming through one of the main gates of the complex, was surrounded by men in black and green uniforms. "Do you know who Liu Xia is?" one of the journalists asked. The response he received was : "I've never met anyone more rude than you." At the same question, a young man who lives in the complex answered "I do not know who she is".

An AFP photographer was detained by the police who asked him to cancel three photographs he had taken from the outside of the apartment. He did not do it and was released shortly thereafter.

On the riverfront overlooking Liu Xia's apartment, everything is quiet, with joggers, bikers and fishermen, unaware of the chaos evolving around the gate.