TOPIC

Hong Kong bookseller disappearances

Hong Kong bookseller disappearances
Five Hong Kong-based book publishers linked to the company Mighty Current went missing in 2015. They eventually turned up in the custody of mainland Chinese authorities. The circumstances surrounding their disappearances have raised questions about the safety of Hongkongers who speak out against Beijing.
Chinese ambassador Gui Congyou has likened Swedish media coverage of China to a lightweight boxer provoking a heavyweight. Photo: EPA-EFE
China’s soft power

Opinion | To lead, China must learn to win friends and stop looking like a bully

As the Sweden example shows, Beijing’s way of dealing with criticism is eroding its soft power. China needs to avoid alienating other countries and learn how to influence people if it is to cement its place at the top.

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Hong Kong national security law

Opinion | How Hong Kong librarians can protect intellectual freedom

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Sweden

Ex-Swedish China envoy cleared in jailed bookseller Gui Minhai case

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Hong Kong national security law

Looming security law for Hong Kong sparks jitters in literary scene

Full details of new law not out yet, but worries surface over restrictions on freedom, creativity.

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Writer Tang Siu-wa says she feels her creative freedom and personal safety are at risk. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Sweden

Ex-Swedish China envoy on trial over talks to free bookseller Gui Minhai

Lindstedt faces up to two years in prison if she is convicted of brokering an unauthorised meeting last year to negotiate the release of the dissident.

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Hong Kong national security law

Opinion | The next chapter is being written for Hong Kong. Will it end well?

While the international community cannot shape the ultimate outcome, it can still create an atmosphere that leads Beijing to take a more cautious approach in implementing the national security law.

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Coronavirus pandemic

Sweden plans to ask EU for Covid-19 probe, likely straining China relations

Sweden’s health minister Lena Hallengren says an investigation is important to know ‘the origin and spread of the coronavirus’.

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A member of the medical staff handles a Covid-19 test at a test facility in a tent, outside Skane University Hospital in Lund, Sweden on Wednesday. Photo: TT News Agency via AP
Human rights in China

Detained Hong Kong bookseller gets back to business in Taiwan

Lam Wing-kee was one of the five Causeway Bay booksellers who disappeared in 2015 and later appeared in custody in mainland China.

Video | HK bookseller who fled to Taiwan attacked with red paint

Human rights in China

US assails Beijing over sentencing of Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai

The Swedish national was given a 10-year prison term for ‘providing intelligence to overseas entities’, though Beijing provided no specifics about the charge.

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Gui Minhai in an undated screen grab from CCTV. Photo: Handout
Human rights in China

Editorial | China must explain bookseller’s 10-year jail term

Gui Minhai, a Swedish national and Hong Kong resident, was sentenced for ‘providing intelligence overseas’ in a case where the details are murky.

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Gui Minhai, the detained book publisher, is seen at the Ningbo Detention Center in Zhejiang province in February 2018. Photo: Simon Song
Human rights in China

Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai sentenced in China to 10 years’ jail

Five years after he ‘disappeared’ in Thailand, the Hong Kong-based Swedish citizen is found guilty of ‘illegally providing intelligence for overseas entities’.

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Diplomacy

Calls for Chinese envoy to be thrown out of Sweden amid diplomatic storm

Gui Congyou lashed out at local media in an interview on the weekend, saying they ‘have a habit of criticising, accusing and smearing China’.

Sweden

Sweden summons Chinese envoy over ‘lightweight boxer’ remark

Gui Chongyou tells state broadcaster that critics are like an ultra lightweight boxer trying to pick a fight with someone twice his size, who is then left with no choice but to respond

Gui Congyou has frequently hit out at the country’s critics in the Swedish media. Photo: EPA-EFE
Hong Kong protests

Letters | Hong Kong’s situation is a simple case of wanting democracy

Hongkongers have expressed their desire for democracy in peaceful marches and at the ballot box over decades. Their desire for a different political system from the one in mainland China does not make them less Chinese.

Hong Kong protesters, mostly officer workers, hold up five fingers to symbolise their five demands including universal suffrage, during a lunch-hour rally in Central on November 13. Photo: Nora Tam
China-EU relations

Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai ‘alive and well’, says Chinese envoy

Gui Congyou tells Swedish newspaper that country must face the consequences of ‘meddling’ in China’s affairs after row over human rights prize.

Human rights in China

China cancels trade visit to Sweden over bookseller’s free speech prize

Chinese ambassador threatened ‘bad consequences’ for Sweden after its culture minister presented award to Gui, represented by an empty chair.

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Espionage

China claims ‘spy’ who defected to Australia is a fraud

Shanghai police claim Wang Liqiang was convicted of fraud in 2016 and is under investigation for another alleged crime.

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Self-confessed spy William Wang Liqiang. Photo: Handout
Sweden

Sweden honours detained bookseller Gui Minhai despite Chinese threats

Swedish culture minister defies warning to present free speech literary prize to Hong Kong bookseller in detention at an unknown location in China.

China’s soft power

Opinion | From Singapore to Sweden, China’s influence campaign is backfiring

From diplomatic hysterics to displays of Chinese patriotism on foreign soil, China’s influence campaign has turned public opinion and forced governments to defend their values and readjust relations.

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bookseller incident

Video | Hong Kong bookseller aims to reopen store in Taiwan

Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee raises US$100,000 for new bookstore in Taiwan
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Hong Kong extradition bill

Letters | What the Swedes can teach China on playing it cool

The greater the official fuss over gossipy books, the more people are likely to believe that there is truth to the fiction. Cut the fuss, let Gui Minhai go, and no one will believe his books.

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Protesters try to stick photos of missing booksellers, one of which shows Gui Minhai (left), during a demonstration outside the mainland Liaison Office in Hong Kong, on January 3, 2016. Gui, a Swedish citizen, was one of five employees of a Hong Kong bookshop specialising in salacious tales about high-level Chinese politics who were believed to have been spirited to the mainland in late 2015. Photo: AP
Diplomacy

Tensions between China and Sweden aren’t hurting trade, researchers say

Despite tense relations, Chinese investment in the country saw a threefold increase last year, and bilateral trade grew 15 per cent.

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Corruption in China

Chinese ex-official arrested again in Sweden – this time at request of US

Qiao Jianjun, former head of grain storage facility, will deny all charges, which include money laundering, and contest extradition, lawyer says.

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China Briefing

China Briefing | Extradition law: one country, two systems and a vicious circle of mistrust

In Hong Kong, residents are worried about Beijing’s attempts to tighten its grip on the city, while central government officials are more concerned with losing control, says Wang Xiangwei.

Anti-extradition bill protesters gather in Admiralty. SCMP / Winson Wong
Human rights in China

Gui Minhai and extradition cases await Sweden’s new envoy to China

Career diplomat Helena Sangeland arrives in Beijing as new trade and human rights strategy takes shape in Stockholm.

Helena Sangeland, newly appointed Swedish ambassador to China, will have to address a controversy that led to the recall of her predecessor in February. Photo: Sweden Government Offices
Hong Kong extradition bill

Letters | Can the people be blamed for paranoia over extradition bill?

Human rights in China

Ex-Swedish ambassador faces criminal probe over secret meetings

Prosecutor says Anna Lindstedt is being investigated over clandestine talks to free bookseller who disappeared from Hong Kong in 2015.

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