To the Chinese government, Liu Xiaobo was an enemy of the state but, for many others, he was a champion of democracy.
Now, at age 61, the writer and activist has died of cancer.
Often compared to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, the Chinese dissident spent his last days as he did much of his life -- under the close watch of the government he criticised.
The leader of Sydney's Network for Democracy, Chen Yonglin, says he sacrificed himself for his country.
"He sacrificed his whole life, his whole life -- his family, his everything -- to that country."
Early on in his life, Liu Xiaobo was branded a "black horse."
Friend and author Linda Jaivin, who lived in China in the 1980s, says the Beijing academic and literary critic was notorious even then for, as she puts it, "tipping sacred cows."
"Very intellectual, very ... very confident. He would attack people who everybody thought were the greatest writers and the greatest poets and all of this stuff. He was quite controversial in his opinions, and very good fun, also."
Liu Xiaobo's fiery wit soon turned to impassioned protest, sparked by a movement that would, in many ways, come to define his life.
In 1989, he was a visiting scholar at the United States' Columbia University.
When the Tiananmen Square protests broke out, he rushed home to support the students.
He gave rousing speeches, joined a hunger strike and is credited with saving many lives by helping negotiate a peaceful retreat for students in the square.
One of his former students, Wu'er Kaixi, now living in Taiwan, says Liu Xiaobo was a mentor figure for many.
"He taught me how to represent a challenging voice to government. He was the guidance of the student movement."
Following the Tiananmen Square massacre, Liu Xiaobo hid in the apartment of a close friend, Nicholas Jose.
The former diplomat offered him refuge at the Australian embassy, but he declined.
"I will always remember that handshake outside the gates of the embassy that night in my car. And he'd borrowed my clothes -- he was wearing my jeans and my jacket -- and ... and off he went."
Liu Xiaobo was apprehended just hours later.
He spent 18 months in jail, the first of many stints in detention.
But despite heavy surveillance and censorship, he continued to publish abroad, condemning China's lack of freedom.
This was Liu Xiaobo speaking in one of his last recorded interviews, on the ABC in 2010:
"The way I see it, people like me live in two prisons in China. You come out of the small, fenced-in prison only to enter the bigger, fenceless prison of society."
While free, he often travelled, lecturing in Australia in 1993.
But he never sought asylum from China.
Nicholas Jose says that was because he was too invested in China's future.
"I think he knew that that's where his ... you know, his destiny was."
It was at a labour camp that Liu Xiaobo met the love of his life, poet Liu Xia, in 1995.
Their relationship would face constant upheaval.
On Christmas Day 2009, Liu Xiaobo was arrested for the final time, charged with inciting subversion for co-authoring a political manifesto calling for democratic reform, Charter 0-8.
The punishment: 11 years imprisonment.
Speaking from Berlin, Chinese artist and activist Ai Wei Wei says the charges laid against him at the time were fabricated.
"He's falsely accused, wrongly being put in jail. You know, there are many Liu Xiaobos there."
But efforts to silence the dissident were derailed a year later when he was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
"The Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and nonviolent struggle for permanent rights in China."
An empty chair on the stage represented Liu Xiaobo.
Nicholas Jose says the gesture was just right.
"It was very fitting, because he has advocated nonviolence, peaceful protest … What's incredible is that China, such a rich and powerful country, should be so frightened by that."
Furious over the matter, the Chinese government put his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest.
The couple's separation would last until only weeks ago, when it was announced Liu Xiaobo was dying.
Two foreign doctors were invited to assess his condition, but pleas for him to be allowed to go abroad for treatment were ignored.
A diplomatic stand-off ensued, with governments and rights groups urging compassion.
A spokesman from German chancellor Angela Merkel's office, Steffan Seibert, expressed Germany's concern days before his death.
"The tragic case of Liu Xiaobo is of great importance to the Chancellor, and she would hope for a sign of humanity."
But China's response remained unchanged.
China's foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, would repeat the following statement in the days leading up to Liu Xiaobo's death:
"We hope countries can respect China's judicial sovereignty and not interfere in China's internal affairs."
With friends barred from visiting, the dying dissident's only comfort was his wife, Liu Xia.
He often wrote of her devotion as his source of strength, paying tribute to her in his famous speech to a Chinese court, I Have No Enemies.
"Even if I were crushed into powder," he declared, "I would still use my ashes to embrace you."
Linda Jaivin says she is thinking of Liu Xia now.
"Because the horror that she must ... what she must feel is almost impossible to imagine."
For many, Ms Jaivin says, Liu Xiaobo represented hope for a nation oppressed by the iron-fisted rule of a one-party state.
"He has stood up and spoken to power -- very, very strong, armed power, you know, power that is militarised power -- without fear."
Nicholas Jose, the former diplomat, says Liu Xiaobo's legacy will continue to resonate around the world.
"I think he has become a symbol of courage and an example of someone who does say what he believes, whatever the consequences. And there are not many people like that in the world."
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