{"id":2236,"date":"2020-02-20T14:11:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T14:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=2236"},"modified":"2020-02-20T14:11:21","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T14:11:21","slug":"swedens-lonely-boxing-match-with-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=2236","title":{"rendered":"Sweden\u2019s lonely boxing match with Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;Sino-Swedish relations took a sharp dip in 2015, when Gui Minhai, a Swedish bookseller known for publishing books critical of Chinese leaders,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/dec\/08\/gui-minhai-the-strange-disappearance-of-a-publisher-who-riled-chinas-elite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">disappeared<\/a>&nbsp;from his home in Thailand only to later show up in Chinese custody accused of causing a traffic accident.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stockholm pushed for Gui&#8217;s release, but made little progress in securing his return to Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After years of simmering diplomatic tension over the case, relations worsened again in late 2019, when a Swedish NGO&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/nov\/18\/china-threatens-sweden-after-gui-minhai-wins-free-speech-award\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">awarded Gui a prize<\/a>&nbsp;and a Swedish minister attended the award ceremony in Stockholm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The incident triggered a forceful response from Beijing: The Chinese ambassador to Sweden accused the government of \u201cinterfering in China&#8217;s internal affairs and judicial sovereignty\u201d and trade missions to Stockholm were canceled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with Swedish state television, he also compared Swedish media coverage of the Gui case to a lightweight boxer who keeps challenging a heavyweight to a fight and won\u2019t back off.&nbsp;\u201cWhat choice do you expect the heavyweight boxer to have?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His comments sent a chill through Sweden\u2019s political, diplomatic and business communities and were condemned by the foreign minister as \u201cunacceptable.\u201d&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/sweden-china-diplomatic-spat\/\">https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/sweden-china-diplomatic-spat\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Sino-Swedish relations took a sharp dip in 2015, when Gui Minhai, a Swedish bookseller known for publishing books critical of Chinese leaders, disappeared from his home in Thailand only to later show up in Chinese custody accused of causing a traffic accident.<\/p>\n<p>Stockholm pushed for Gui&#8217;s release, but made little progress in securing his return to Sweden.<\/p>\n<p>After years of simmering diplomatic tension over the case, relations worsened again in late 2019, when a Swedish NGO awarded Gui a prize and a Swedish minister attended the award ceremony in Stockholm.<\/p>\n<p>The incident triggered a forceful response from Beijing: The Chinese ambassador to Sweden accused the government of \u201cinterfering in China&#8217;s internal affairs and judicial sovereignty\u201d and trade missions to Stockholm were canceled.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Swedish state television, he also compared Swedish media coverage of the Gui case to a lightweight boxer who keeps challenging a heavyweight to a fight and won\u2019t back off. \u201cWhat choice do you expect the heavyweight boxer to have?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His comments sent a chill through Sweden\u2019s political, diplomatic and business communities and were condemned by the foreign minister as \u201cunacceptable.\u201d&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[89,272,355,465],"class_list":["post-2236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-china","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-policy","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2237,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions\/2237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}