A diplomatic crisis is brewing between Sweden and China.
It comes after China’s ambassador in Sweden has warned that the Swedish minister of culture, Amanda Lind, will be unwanted in China, if she participates in a ceremony for a jailed Swedish-chinese publisher.
It is met with anger among Swedish politicians.
Prime minister Stefan Löfven makes it clear that the minister for culture will be handing out the price, as the Swedish PEN-club has awarded the publisher Gui Minhai. He has been imprisoned in China since 2015.
Löfven ignoring thus the warning has come from China’s ambassador in Stockholm, Gui Conyou.
He threatens that this will have implications for Sweden, if a highly placed politician participating in PEN’s ceremony.
– We have made it clear to the chinese that the Gui Minhai must be set free, and that there is freedom of speech in Sweden, says Amanda Lind.
the Publisher Gui Minhai is a Swedish citizen. He founded in 2012 a publishing house in Hong kong, which publishes critical books on China. He was in 2015 after all judging abducted to China during a trip in Thailand.
He has since been convicted and jailed in China for revealing chinese state secrets.
