BEIJING — China’s most famous political prisoner, Liu Xiaobo,
received a quiet cremation under official watch early on Saturday, when
the government allowed only his widow and a few other mourners to bid
farewell to the man who was also the country’s only Nobel Peace Prize
laureate.Later
in the day, Mr. Liu’s ashes were lowered into the sea in a simple
ceremony, ensuring that there would be no grave on land to serve as a
magnet for protest against the Communist Party.“As Mozart’s Requiem played, Liu Xiaobo’s
wife, Liu Xia, first came forward to stand before his body,” according
to an official account of the funeral emailed by the Chinese Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. “She gazed upon him for a long time and murmured her
final farewells to her husband.”