Imagine that you are an innocent Swedish publisher and poet sitting in a small cell with the light on 24 hours a day somewhere in China. You are denied all contact with your family. You are not allowed to read the newspaper or watch TV. You are not allowed to read books even though you are a bookworm. You are even denied contact with Swedish diplomats. You haven't heard from loved ones in years. You don't know what's going on in the world. The only people you meet are prison guards who rarely say a word. The days go by, the months go by, the years go by, in exactly the same way.
The Swede in the prison cell we are referring to is Gui Minhai. When he wakes up in his cell today, exactly 4,000 days have passed since he was detained by agents in Pattaya, Thailand and taken overland to China. He is in prison only because he has engaged in independent publishing in Hong Kong but in dictatorship prose Gui Minhai has been "sentenced" to 10 years in prison for "providing information to a foreign power". No one has seen the fabricated "sentence".
Sweden's government has not managed to meet a Swedish citizen in Chinese prison for more than eight years, but they are happy to meet one Chinese minister after another
That a Swedish publicist spends 4,000 days in a Chinese prison also means 4,000 days of failed silent diplomacy. Sweden's government has not managed to meet a Swedish citizen in a Chinese prison for more than eight years, but they are happy to meet one Chinese minister after another. As recently as July this year, the red carpet was rolled out when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Stockholm. Talk about letting a citizen down!
The strength and endurance of 62-year-old Gui Minhai is impressive. He uses the prison time for something creative and positive. And his poetry has gotten better. It was in prison that he memorized the collection of poems I draw a door on the wall with my finger and managed to send the work to his daughter Angela. A fact that causes discomfort: That Gui Minhai probably does not even know that his acclaimed poetry collection is published in Swedish and Chinese, that it has been translated into German in its entirety, and that several poems have been translated into English and Spanish. This very fact clearly reveals the anatomy of the dictatorship that China's autocratic ruler Xi Jinping has built.
Gui Minhai's fate has touched many in Sweden. Civil society has lined up mangrant for him. Freedom of expression organizations have organized at least twenty demonstrations for Gui Minhai's freedom outside the Chinese embassy in Stockholm. Gui Minhai has received the Tucholsky Prize, the International Publishers Association's prestigious Prix Voltaire. The Gothenburg Book Fair has for many years reserved a chair for Gui Minhai. Nils van der Poel (now Svensson) has donated his Olympic medal to Gui Minhai.
But while civil society is fighting for the Gothenburger Gui Minhai, there is not the same commitment from municipalities, regions and the government. The cultural committee in Gothenburg said no to Grönsakstorget being renamed Gui Minhai square. No tram has been named after Gui Minhai.
Everyone in Sweden should stand up for a Swedish citizen and freedom of press and expression. Free speech is not a given. We must fight for it every day and everywhere
It's a pity. Everyone in Sweden should stand up for a Swedish citizen and freedom of press and expression. Free speech is not a given. We must fight for it every day and everywhere.
It was very gratifying when Region Stockholm changed the name of the bus stop outside the Russian embassy to Fria Ukrainas place. Why can't the same region name the Museiparken bus stop at the Chinese Embassy in Djurgården after Gui Minhai's place? Such an act would force the Chinese diplomats to think about Gui Minhai every day. All Chinese tourists and Swedes who look up the Chinese embassy in Stockholm would be curious about who the cultural personality Gui Minhai is.
Come on Stockholm, honor Gui Minhai with a bus stop!
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