China dissident Liu 'dies in US'

The prominent Chinese dissident writer, Liu Binyan, has died at the age of 80 in the US, reports say.

Mr Liu had lived in exile in the US for the past 18 years and had been suffering from cancer.

He was the son of a railway worker and joined the underground Communist Party of China in the 1940s.

He was later expelled from the party for criticising corruption and censorship in communist China, and denounced by the authorities.

Over the next four decades, he was sent to a labour camp, then pardoned and rehabilitated in the late 1970s.

However, he was then expelled again and forced into exile when he continued to write against corruption and misrule.