China Nobel's wife asks for doctor, husband's letters

“She's quite depressed,” Zeng said. “The family brings her medication but they don't know how effective it is because no doctor has seen her.”

Zeng added that Liu Xia was concerned that a state-appointed doctor or one whom she sees under the supervision of her minders might put her in a mental hospital that would worsen her isolation from the outside world.

Zeng declined to publicly disclose the source of her information out of concern it would lead to more official retaliation against Liu Xia or her family.

But another close friend, Xu Youyu, a retired professor, said the requests described by Zeng were in line with what he had heard about Liu Xia from the couple's relatives and other sources.

“Liu Xia's situation right now, I think, is very critical,” said Xu, who was part of a group of friends who managed to visit Liu Xia last December after brushing past a guard at her apartment building. “They have deprived her of her right as a citizen to lead a normal life.”

Like Zeng, Xu described how financial pressures were weighing on Liu Xia, whose younger brother had supported her with pocket money until he was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment for fraud. Liu Xia has decried the conviction and sentencing as a vendetta against the whole family.