Sweden – Dagens Nyheter (DN), August 04, 2024
What happened to Gui Minhai? The Swedish publisher’s books irritated the Chinese Communist Party. He was kidnapped in Thailand, secretly taken overland to China. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for a fabricated crime. The last sign of life came six years ago.
Gui Minhai was abducted in Thailand over 3,200 days ago. He appeared on Chinese television where he was forced to confess three times to various fabricated crimes.
Negotiations and quiet talks between Sweden and China on the release of the imprisoned Swedish citizen and an EU-China human rights dialogue have failed.
After 38 rounds of talks between the EU and China, even Amnesty International got tired of the long and fruitless discussions.
“There is no reason to believe that the 39th round will prove beneficial for the development of rights in China,” the human rights organization commented earlier this summer. It urged the EU to find other, better ways to put pressure on the Chinese regime to stop committing crimes against humanity. And to hold accountable those who are responsible but fail to comply with the rules.
In 2018, a Swedish doctor was reported to have met Gui Minhai during a short visit to a hospital in the Chinese city of Ningbo, south of Shanghai. This is the latest sign of life.
Earlier that year, he had been on a train between Shanghai and Beijing. The Swedish publisher was accompanied by the Consul General of Sweden in Shanghai and another Swedish diplomat.
As the train approached the Chinese capital, a group of plainclothes men boarded at the station in the city of Jinan. Right in front of the Swedish diplomats, they took Gui Minhai away.
The message was clear: we do what we want.
When Sweden made diplomatic protests, the Chinese Foreign Ministry replied that in China, Chinese law applies.
That law is written to secure the position of the Communist Party.
Chinese officials later explained to Swedish diplomats that Gui Minhai was suspected of meeting with them and sharing secret information with them.
Two years later, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for providing information to foreign countries.
Since then, there has been silence.
From imprisoned dissidents in Russia and spy-accused Westerners in Iran, there have been occasional signs of life. From time to time, they have been allowed to speak to lawyers and relatives on the phone. Sometimes there are surprising prisoner exchanges, like the recent one.
From Gui Minhai: not a sound. He seems to be completely cut off. Apparently because the Chinese Communist Party wants his case to be forgotten.
It is unclear exactly what the 60-year-old publisher had to endure during his time in China. In the Chinese system, people risk disappearing both before and after trial in the mazes of detention centers and “black jails” outside the legal system. And after an arranged trial, they are isolated in a small cell with lights on 24 hours a day.
Neither Gui Minhai’s relatives nor the Swedish Embassy in Beijing have been informed of his general condition.
