16 July, 2017
Liu (61) died of multiple organ failure last Thursday in a hospital in the north-eastern city of Shenyang, where he was being treated for late-stage liver cancer, having been given medical parole but not freed.
He thanked the Communist Party for its "humanistic care" of his brother during his hospitalisation and death.
City government information official Zhang Qingyang said Liu Xia and Liu Xiaoguang had decided upon the scattering of ashes at sea.
"We know that Liu Xiaobo's home is Beijing, his spiritual home is here, his love was also found here", he said.
The 68-year-old brother said throughout the whole process starting with the treatment, cremation and scattering of ashes at sea, everything reflects the advantage of the socialist system and leading experts from home and overseas gathered together for Liu Xiaobo's treatment.
While the Communist regime claimed the family made a decision to cremate Liu Xiaobo and hold a simple funeral for him, family friends rejected this and claimed his widow is under tight surveillance.
The body of China's late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo was cremated Saturday after a private ceremony attended by his family, as Beijing faces worldwide pressure to let the dissident's wife leave the country.
Liu Xia, a poet, stood with her brother, and two of Liu Xiaobo's brothers in front of the body, which was covered with white petals.
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who lives in Berlin, tweeted a photo of the funeral and called the display "disgusting" and a "violation" of the deceased.
Government official Zhang, speaking earlier, said Liu's widow was "currently free", adding that as a Chinese citizen, her rights would be protected under the law.
The late dissident's lawyer Jared Genser said Liu Xia had been held "incommunicado" since her husband's death, BBC reported. Asked if Liu Xia could travel overseas as she previously requested, Zhang said she was free but as she was "in great sorrow" over the death of her husband, the relevant authorities respected her wish not to be disturbed, Efe news quoted Zhang as saying.
China has repeatedly attacked foreign governments for their concern about Liu and calls to allow Liu Xia to leave the country if she wishes, and foreign reporters in Shenyang have been closely monitored by plainclothes security.
"It's best for her not to receive too much outside interference during this period", he said. The veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "subversion" a year later.
"And now it's been passed on to his wife, who will continue to lead on that same freedom-less existence".