THE WIFE of the Chinese activist who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has told reporters that her incarcerated husband has been given an improved diet in prison.

Liu Xiaobo was recognised for his years of advocating human rights and peaceful democratic change – stretching back over more than two decades to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Announcing the prize on Friday, the Nobel committee praised Lui’s “long and non-violent struggle for human rights in China” and said it had “long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace.”

Liu was jailed in 2008 for contributing to a manifesto seeking political reform – but now his wife, Xia, in a telephone interview with the Associated Press, said her husband was being given improved food.

While prisoners are usually given food prepared in a single large pot, Xiaobo was now being given individually prepared food with rice. There was, however, no other indication of improved living conditions.

Guards have been posted outside the couple’s home, with only Xia’s brothers allowed to visit. She is accompanied by the guards every time she leaves the house – including when she was given a brief meeting with her husband on Sunday.

China has remained outwardly aggressive about the award – going so far as to summon the Norwegian ambassador in protest, despite the Nobel Committee being an entirely independent entity.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told a briefing earlier today that by supporting “the wrong decision of the Nobel committee, the Norwegian government [...] hurt bilateral relations”.

Any attempt to change China’s politics by rewarding a dissident was a mistake, Ma said, and other countries were using the award as a means to attack the country covertly.

News of Liu’s new diet, though, could raise suggestions that the government is buckling under international pressure to allow him attend the prizegiving ceremony.