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GUI MINHAI

Swedish publishers call on China to release jailed bookseller Gui Minhai

A group of Swedish publishers have written an open letter to China's new ambassador to Sweden, calling for the release of Chinese-Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai, who is serving ten years in prison on charges of illegally providing intelligence abroad.

Published: 31 January 2022 11:53 CET
Swedish publishers call on China to release jailed bookseller Gui Minhai
Gui Minhai's face on a placard at a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Stockholm in 2020. Photo: Lisa Arfwidson/SvD/TT

Gui, one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers known for publishing salacious titles about China’s political leaders, has been at the centre of diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Beijing for more than six years.

Gui disappeared while on holiday in Thailand in 2015 and resurfaced in China, where he served two years in prison.

A few months after his October 2017 release he was again arrested, this time while on a train to Beijing with Swedish diplomats. He was then hit with the 10-year jail term in 2020.

On Monday, a letter signed by 21 Swedish publishers and addressed to China’s new ambassador to Sweden, Cui Aimin, was printed in the country’s main newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

The 21 included authors, literary figures and culture editors for Sweden’s main dailies, as well as Gui’s Swedish publisher Martin Kaunitz.

“Mr Ambassador, the name you will hear most in Swedish-Chinese relations is Gui Minhai”, they wrote.

“All Swedish (political) parties, freedom of speech organisations and leading Swedish newspapers demand that Gui Minhai be immediately released”.

They argued that China had arrested Gui on “loose grounds”. The allegation that he provided intelligence to a foreign country “seems to have been pulled out of thin air and casts long shadows over China”.

China insists the matter is an internal affair and has been stung by criticism from Sweden.

Gui was born in China, which does not recognise dual citizenship. Chinese officials claimed he voluntarily reinstated his Chinese citizenship in 2018. Sweden insists he remains a citizen.

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SWEDEN AND CHINA

Sweden deports Chinese journalist with lifetime ban on returning

A Chinese journalist is being deported from Sweden with a lifetime ban on returning, after the Swedish security services, Säpo, accused her of posing a threat to national security.

Published: 8 April 2024 10:10 CEST
Sweden deports Chinese journalist with lifetime ban on returning

The 57-year-old woman arrived in Sweden almost 20 years ago and is married to a Swedish man, reports public broadcaster SVT’s investigative news programme, Uppdrag granskning.

Until October 9th last year, she published daily articles on her own news website, but was taken into custody by Säpo the same month.

In November, the Migration Agency issued a deportation order.

“The information the authority has is very reliable. The complainant poses a serious threat to the security of the realm,” Säpo told the Migration Court after the journalist appealed the decision.

The Migration Court in its ruling recommended that the government uphold the deportation and return ban, which it has now done in a decision signed by Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer, reports Uppdrag granskning.

The journalist, who denies that she’s a threat to national security, is reported to have had close contact with the Chinese embassy and people linked to the Chinese regime in Sweden for years.

Säpo has previously named China as one of the greatest threats to Swedish national security, accusing Beijing of carrying out widespread espionage and intelligence operations in Sweden.

Last year the journalist in question was mentioned in a report by the Swedish National China Centre, run by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, on Chinese diaspora media and their links to the Chinese Communist Party.

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