International
China continues crackdown on activists, arrests ailing Hong Kong book seller
China has continued its clampdown on activists, lawyers and anyone in the country deemed to be vocal against government policies after it confirmed the arrest of an ailing Hong Kong-based bookseller.
According to Chinese authorities Gui Minhai was arrested last month for allegedly breaking the law, and the confirmation comes after Gui’s daughter said Chinese police had arrested him in January while he was travelling to Beijing for medical help in the company of Swedish diplomats.
“Gui Minhai broke Chinese law and has already been subjected to criminal coercive measures in accordance with the law by relevant Chinese authorities,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters.
However, Sweden has demanded that Gui, who is a dual Chinese and Swedish citizen, be released and given the opportunity to meet Swedish diplomats and medical staff.
“It is very serious that the Swedish citizen Gui Minhai is still imprisoned in China,” Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement on Monday.
Read also: TUNISIA: 770 arrested over protests against plans to raise taxes, basic goods
“The brutal intervention in January against a Swedish-support measure was implemented, despite Chinese repeated assurances that Gui Minhai was a free man at the time,” Wallstrom added.
“Chinese action was contrary to basic international rules on consular support.”
The confirmation of Gui’s arrest is coming about a week after a court in China charged detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng with “inciting subversion of state power” according to his wife Xu Yan.
The wife of the detained lawyer also said the police summoned her after she gave interviews to foreign media as China.
Xu said police informed her on Saturday that her husband was being charged with “inciting subversion of state power” rather than the original lighter charge of “obstructing a public service.
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