BEIJING — The U.S. ambassador to China on Saturday urged Beijing to improve its human rights record, pointing to imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo as an example where China falls short.

In a statement released on the U.N.’s International Human Rights Day, envoy Gary Locke said protection of human rights in China had not kept up with the country’s massive economic gains.

Locke said the imprisonment of Liu and restrictions on the freedoms of his wife, the disappearance of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, the unlawful detention of Chinese citizens such as lawyer Chen Guangcheng, and constraints on the religious freedom and practices of Tibetan, Uighur (WEE’ gur) and Christian communities “do not bring China closer to achieving its stated goals.”

Liu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for co-authoring an appeal for political reform. His wife, Liu Xia, has largely been held incommunicado, effectively under house arrest, watched by police, without phone or Internet access and prohibited from seeing all but a few family members. 
 
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