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psitrend · 4 years

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Interview with Björn Jerdén, Head of UI's Asia Programme: Gui Minhai, the Confucius Institutes in Sweden, and the relations between China and Sweden

New Post has been published on https://china-underground.com/2020/05/01/interview-with-bjorn-jerden-head-of-uis-asia-programme-gui-minhai-the-confucius-institutes-in-sweden-and-the-relations-between-china-and-sweden/

Interview with Björn Jerdén, Head of UI's Asia Programme: Gui Minhai, the Confucius Institutes in Sweden, and the relations between China and Sweden

Björn Jerdén is the Head of The Asia Program of The Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI). His research focuses on the international relations of China, Japan, and the United States.

What has changed in the relations between Sweden and China since Xi Jinping came to power?

In the first couple of years, not much changed. Then, in the fall of 2015 a Swedish citizen, Gui Minhai, a bookseller based in Hong Kong, who used to live in Sweden earlier, published a book partly critical about the Chinese Communist Party leaders. He was kidnapped by Chinese agents while he was spending some time in Thailand, and then he showed up on Chinese state television (after months of his disappearance, Gui reappeared on national television confessing his guilt for an accident occurred 10 years earlier, when he killed a schoolgirl while driving drunk). He’s been detained in China since then. So I think that was when the relationship between Sweden and China started to deteriorate.

Where is Gui Minhai at the moment? What will happen to him?

Earlier this year it was announced by a court in Ningbo, in Zhejiang, that he had been sentenced to 10 years in prison. They didn’t disclose any details about the court ruling other than his alleged crime, sharing state secrets. So he’s in jail in China. Chinese authorities also stated that he had reapplied to become a Chinese citizen again. According to Chinese law, when you’re Chinese, you can’t be a citizen of any other country. So since this ruling, Chinese authorities stated that since Gui Minhai’s not a Swedish citizen anymore, this issue is no longer a matter for China-Sweden relations. Of course, the Swedish side views it differently because to renounce your Swedish citizenship, you have to apply to the migration agency. Gui Minhai hasn’t done that. So to the Swedish authorities, Gui Minhai is still a Swedish citizen. But we know he’s in jail in China at the moment.

Has Sweden received any kind of support from the European Union?

Initially, when Gui Minhai was detained, the Swedish government was not very active in making this an issue at the EU level. I think initially the hope was that Sweden could use so-called silent diplomacy to secure Gui Minhai’s release. However, as time went by, it was obvious that this strategy had failed. In recent years, the Swedish government has sought to elevate this issue to the EU level. And we have seen statements of support from the EU institutions and also from other leaders of other EU member states supporting Sweden’s case. So there has been some support, but so far it doesn’t seem to me that this issue has interfered in EU China relations.

Are you worried about possible retaliation against Swedish individuals, organizations, or business activities in China?

Well, we have seen some retaliation already. For example, last fall, when the Swedish minister for culture awarded a prize honoring Gui Minhai in Stockholm, the Chinese government responded by threatening Sweden with consequences. And one consequence was that representatives of the Swedish government working in the culture wouldn’t be allowed to visit China at all. After that, several Swedish films that were supposed to be screened in China were banned by the Chinese authorities. And there has also been canceled by the Chinese side meetings at the government level between Sweden and China as retaliation.

However, so far, we don’t have any clear data on whether this has affected Sweden’s economic relationship with China. There are no clear indications that it has so far. But, of course, given the incidents we have seen in other countries in recent years, for example the two Canadian citizens that were detained in China as retaliation for Huawei, I think in light of that, you can rule out that also individual Swedish citizens might risk being targeted in some way. However, so far, there haven’t been any well-publicized cases. The public communication by the Chinese embassy here in Stockholm has been quite strident in the last few years and it includes quite a lot of either direct or indirect threats against different organizations, but also individual journalists.

What does the closure of the Confucius Institutes in the country mean?

The first Confucius Institute in Sweden was opened in 2005 at Stockholm University. It was the first Confucius Institute in the whole of Europe. But then a debate started, whether it was a good idea to have this kind of institutes in Swedish universities. It took another 10 years for Stockholm to close down its Confucius Institute, and this happened before this diplomatic downturn between Sweden and China.

At that time the relationship between the Swedish and Chinese government was quite good. In the last few years, the relationship deteriorated, and also the public discussion in Sweden about the Chinese government became much more negative. This debate has influenced also the remaining Confucius Institutes and Confucius classrooms. In the last year, the last Confucius Institutes and Confucius classrooms were closed down. These latest decisions have been influenced by this kind of pretty dire relationship between the Swedish and the Chinese governments.

What are the consequences?

One consequence, of course, is that Swedish students will have fewer opportunities to learn Chinese. The number of Chinese language learners has dropped quite a bit over the last eight years or so. But this is not only because of the Confucius Institutes. I think it’s mainly a limited interest among Swedish students to learn Chinese. When it comes to political consequences, these decisions to close these institutes have all been made by either the local universities or the local municipalities, the local governments in Sweden.

The central government has not been involved in closing any of these institutes, it’s not a matter for the relationship between Swedish and Chinese government. That might explain why so far at least, the Chinese government hasn’t said much about this development. Today I haven’t seen any indications that this would directly negatively influence Sweden’s relationship with China. But, of course, it represents a kind of disengagement. Fewer ties between Swedish society and Chinese society. Indirectly, I think it might have consequences also for the overall relationship between Sweden and China.

Was Sweden targeted by Chinese trolls on the internet?

Well, there are some cases here. The first happened in the fall of 2018 when three Chinese tourists arrived one day early to their hotel. And of course, this eventually made the news in China. A satirical show on Swedish television did an episode about this. They used imagery and language, which many people in Sweden, but also China viewed as being racist. After that, they received a lot of threats. These two issues made headlines in China. So at that time, there were some quite fierce attacks coming out from China to different Swedish organizations. However, as far as I’m aware, there is no study on whether this was sort of organized in any sense.

During the pandemics the Global Times in China ran an editorial a couple of months ago very harshly criticizing the Swedish government for allegedly surrendering to the virus. At that time, we saw some critical reporting in Chinese media about Sweden. But I’m not aware of whether it was some kind of organized troll attacks as well.

Will it be possible in the future to avoid dependence on China for the manufacturing industry?

This is a very tricky issue. Most countries in Europe are quite dependent on the Chinese market. Sweden is a country with a lot of export industries. I think 4.5 percent of Swedish export goes to China. And I think that’s around 4 in Europe. So in the European context, Sweden belongs to those countries most dependent on the Chinese market. And now also during the pandemic, if we get a situation where the Chinese economy recovers faster, the Chinese market might become even more important if other parts of the world aren’t interested in buying Swedish products. I think it’s rather about finding a balance. In the case of Sweden, Sweden is both a country that is dependent on the Chinese market, but Sweden is also a country in the European Union which is among the most active ones when it comes to bringing up human rights issues internationally, also toward China. Previously the Swedish government sort of managed to find a balance, maintaining stable economic relations with China, but at the same time criticizing China when it was needed and necessary. But this kind of balance is harder to achieve today. In recent years when we see this deteriorating diplomatic relationship and the harsh rhetoric coming from the Chinese side against Sweden, the discussion about the dependency on the Chinese economy has increased in Sweden, and different opinion-makers and politicians are trying to find ways to reduce this dependency.

When it comes to the Chinese market it will probably prove to be difficult. when it comes to Chinese investments in Sweden, they are discussing whether to introduce this kind of investment screening, to be able to stop investment in certain sectors, and so on. But if we look at the trends in recent years, both Swedish exports to China and Chinese investments in Sweden are only increasing. So we haven’t seen any kind of disengagement in the economic sphere.

#GuiMinhai, #Sweden

#Gui Minhai #Sweden

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clementine-lominsan · 2 years

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Därför röstade jag S

Hej!

Jag har bott i Sverige i tio år och blev svensk medborgare i augusti. Jag oroade mig för att jag kan få hat och hån, men i dag vill jag förklara mitt val. Jag kom från Kina, och runt 2010 blev det för mycket i Kina med all censur på musik, datorspel och böcker. Därför planerade jag att komma ut ur Kina och uppnå min personliga "exodus". Jag älskar frihet och demokrati, och hatar Kinas kommunistiska parti (KKP). Nedstående är mina skäl för att rösta på S i går.

1. V: De kallade sig för Kommunistiska partiet förr, och de stöttade Joseph Stalin och kritiserade Finland som "fascistiskt" på Vinterkriget. Förutom detta stöttar många av deras ledamöter PKK, och sedan 2015 har PKK dödat 600 civila. Inget stöd från mig. Förlåt.

2. MP: De har ledamöter liksom Mehmet Kaplan som stöttar islamister som vill döda HBTQ-människor, och tyvärr tillhör jag gruppen. Dessutom tror jag att man måste utveckla hållbara energikällor, men det är väldigt osannolikt att målet kan uppnås inom 3 år. Jag tror att det åtminstone tar 2-3 decennier. Så nej tack.

3. C: Partiets ursprungliga syfte var att stötta Sveriges bönder, men i Stockholm och Riksdagen ser jag bara frimarknadspolitik. Ja, jag är inte emot marknad, men snälla, tänk lite mer på de bönderna. Också jag tycker inte om Annie Lööf. När ska du äta din sko? Bara ett foto räcker, du behöver inte äta den på riktigt!

4. M: Jag vill att Sverige slutar med massiv asylsökandemottagning, och nu skyller högern på S om immigrationspolitik. Men snälla, Frederik Reinfelt pratade om att "öppna era hjärtan" när han var statsminister, och M hade tagit emot nästan ett miljon migranter. Jag tycker om fakta, inte lögner. Återigen F. Reinfeldt. Han började jobba på ett företag i Hong Kong, vilket är djupt kopplat till KKP. Särskilt blev Kevin Liu hans vän som hotade Angela Gui, Gui Minhais dotter. Ja, jag förstår att handelsintressen är viktiga för de borgliga, men då får ni inget stöd från mig.

5. L: Jag har inte för mycket mot deras ideologi och jag hade gillat Nyamko Sabuni. Men vill hon fly till Norge ifall Ryssland invaderar? Förlåt, "nein"!

6. KD: Jag fick ett SMS från den kinesiska ambassaden år 2014 som bad oss stötta Lydia Liu från KD. Jag kollade på hennes résumé och konkluderade att hon höll på att arbeta för KKP. Det tog fem år för KD att sparka henne. Inget stöd från mig.

7. SD: Javisst, jag vill ha hårdare straff för brottslingar. Men, varför har de så många som kopplade till nynazister eller rasister? Okej, det vara bara undantag. Men, från vad jag ser låter deras ledare inte så intelligenta. Jag är doktor i teoretisk fysik och jag pratar tre språk och därför vill jag stötta någon som är smart. Dessutom, varför stöttar SD Ryssland och Trumpister? "Sverige ska bli bra igen", säger de. Rysslandsdemokraterna? Amerikademokraterna? Underligt och obehagligt.

8. S: Ja, jag tittade på SD:s dokumentär Ett folk ett parti. Men åtminstone beter S inte så här längre år 2022. Jag älskar Sveriges sociala, ekonomiska och politiska system och det var i allmänhet S:es verk. Personligen vill jag ge en chans till Magdalena Andersson (åtminstone 4 år). Också S slutade med att ta emot så många asylsökande som M, vilket är bra - iaf bor det bara tiomiljoner i Sverige. S är inte så extremt på ideologi som frimarknadskapitalister eller marxist-leninister, och jag tycker om faktumet att de är ganska pragmatiska.

Jag vet inte om det kan hjälpa de som känner sig förvirrade men det var mitt resonemang. Jag hade aldrig röstat innan gårdagen. Tack och ha det bra!

#politics #election2022

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setsailtomorrow · 2 years

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“I realize that Gui Minhai will not be set free because of this. I realize that the Chinese people will not stop suffering from oppression because of this. But I really, really believe in free speech,” Mr. van der Poel said in Cambridge, England, where he handed the medal to Angela Gui, Mr. Gui’s daughter, in a small, improvised ceremony.

#nils van der poel #angela gui #gui minhai #olympics #after having been informed #he took the time to learn #and made a plan #i just… liked reading this a lot

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panicinthestudio · 4 years

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#Sweden #China #Gui Minhai #causeway bay books #politics #foreign policy #detention #judicial system #Angela Gui #intelligence #Swedish Foreign Ministry #Anna Lindstedt #Chinese Communist Party #news #hong kong free press

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higherentity · 5 years

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#angela gui #activist #freedom fighter #gui minhai

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togiweb · 4 years

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Il libraio dissidente di Hong Kong sfida Pechino e riapre a Taiwan CI riprova a Taiwan Lam Wing-kee. Sperando che le lunghe mani di Pechino, da cui sostiene di essere sempre minacciato, non arrivino fino a lì.

#Cina #Filippo Santelli #Gui Minhai #Hong Kong #Lam Wing-kee

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profzubby · 4 years

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China Sentences Swedish Bookseller To 10 Years In Prison

China has sentenced Swedish book publisher Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison on charges of illegally providing intelligence abroad and claimed him as a citizen, prompting Stockholm to call for his release in a case that has rattled diplomatic relations.

Gui, one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers known for publishing salacious titles about Chinese political leaders, was snatched by Chinese…

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#China #Gui Minhai #Swedish book publisher #World News

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gettothestabbing · 4 years

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At the center of the issue is Gui Minhai, a bookseller who was born in China and later became a Swedish citizen. He is known for publishing sensational tales of Chinese Communist Party leaders’ private lives.

In 2015, Chinese agents abducted Gui Minhai from his own vacation home in Thailand. He was one of the five booksellers — the other four were from Hong Kong — abducted by Chinese agents in an effort to silence and punish those who dared to disparage CCP leaders. Gui was coerced into making a TV “confession,” claiming he turned himself in to Chinese authorities for a hit-and-run incident he supposedly committed in 2003.

After being detained for two years in China without any access to his family or a lawyer, Gui was “partially” released from his detention in October 2017, but was forbidden to leave China. On Jan. 20, 2018, while Gui was traveling by train accompanied by Sweden’s consul general in Shanghai, Lisette Lindahl, and another Swedish diplomat, several Chinese security agents in plain clothes arrested Gui again without presenting any arrest warrants, while ignoring the repeated protests from the Swedish diplomats.

Chinese authorities waited until Feb. 9 that year to make their explanation of Gui’s second arrest. They claimed Gui was suspected of leaking state secrets to “overseas groups” and trying to outrun his crimes with the assistance of Swedish diplomats. Gui’s daughter, who hasn’t seen her father since 2015, said the Chinese government’s accusation against her father is ridiculous.

As soon as he arrived at Stockholm, Ambassador Gui frequently sent emails and letters to Swedish media, including newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Expressen, and Swedish state broadcasters Sveriges Radio and SVT. Through these communications, Ambassador Gui attacked the Swedish media for its persistent coverage on the bookseller and other Chinese human rights issues as “grossly meddling” with China’s internal affairs, and has threatened not to issue visas to China for journalists from these media outlets. In addition, it was reported that between January 2018 and May 2019, the Chinese Embassy under Ambassador Gui’s leadership issued 57 statements heavily criticizing local press coverage of China, and accused Sweden of escalating the tension between the two nations.

In November 2019, the Swedish PEN, a literary organization, announced it would be giving bookseller Gui the Tucholsky prize, named after the German writer Kurt Tucholsky, who fled Nazi Germany for resettlement in Sweden. PEN gives the award each year to a writer who has experienced unjust persecution. Its past award winners include Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist who writes about people suffering in the Soviet Union.

Calling bookseller Gui a “criminal, a lie-fabricator and rumor-spreader” and the award a “farce,” Ambassador Gui demanded that PEN revoke the award. He threatened that both PEN and Sweden would otherwise “suffer the consequences of their own actions.” Ambassador Gui’s open threats to Sweden were so appalling and undiplomatic that some Swedish politicians called for him to be expelled from Sweden.

The PEN award went ahead as planned. Sweden’s culture and democracy minister attended the award ceremony. China immediately canceled two large business delegations to Sweden as retaliation. Despite this, Ambassador Gui kept further escalating.

In a recent interview with Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT, he compared the Swedish media to a lightweight boxer who would suffer by punching above its weight against a much bigger rival, China. In his own words: “It’s like a 48kg lightweight boxer who is trying to provoke a boxing match with an 86kg heavyweight, and the 86kg boxer wants to be nice and protect the 48kg boxer, so he tells him to go away and watch out for himself. But the lightweight boxer doesn’t listen, and instead continues to provoke the heavyweight, and even forces his way into his home. So what choice does the heavyweight boxer have?” Ambassador Gui also reiterated in the same interview that the Chinese Embassy would have total justification in “denying visas to journalists who did not want to visit China to promote friendship, communication, understanding, and cooperation.”

The Swedish Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Gui last week and criticized him for what Sweden regarded as an “unacceptable threat.” Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde later told the press, “What China’s ambassador now does is very serious. We have continuously conveyed to the ambassador from the foreign ministry and even from me personally that freedom of expression is protected by the constitution and that journalists have the right to carry out their work completely unhindered.”

Ambassador Gui is not an inexperienced diplomat, nor is he someone who suddenly decided to go rogue. His undiplomatic behaviors and confrontational style are backed by Beijing. Many observers have noticed that since 2019, Beijing has pushed its diplomats to take advantage of free speech in Western democracies and learn to use foreign media platforms, especially social media such as Twitter, to relentlessly promote Beijing’s propaganda and silence critics at the same time.

#Helen Raleigh #China #ambassadors #human rights #Sweden #threats #Gui Congyou #Gui Minhai #free speech #free press #wow #social media #emphasis added to original #Tucholsky prize #diplomacy #foreign embassies

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jamiededes · 5 years

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Welcome News of Imprisoned Swedish Publisher/Poet Gui Minhai's Upcoming Collection "I Draw Blood on the Wall with My Finger"

Welcome News of Imprisoned Swedish Publisher/Poet Gui Minhai’s Upcoming Collection “I Draw Blood on the Wall with My Finger”

Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

“We enthusiastically welcome the news of Gui Minhai’s forthcoming book of poetry, which will serve not only as a literary work but also as a reminder that Gui continues to be unjustly detained,” said James Tager, deputy director of Free Expression Research and Policy at PEN America.

Taipei Times and PEN…

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#Gui Minhai #Human Rights #justice #PEN America #poet #poet-at-risk #Poetry

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americanmysticom · 5 years

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Police walk past missing person notices of Gui Minhai (L), one of five missing booksellers from the Mighty Current publishing house, and Yau Wentian (R), a Hong Kong publisher who was last year jailed for 10 years while preparing to release a book critical of Chinese leadership, posted on top of the sign of China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong on Jan. 3, 2016. (ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images)

China Logic: A Guide to Uncivilized Behavior

Peter Zhang December 9, 2018 - THE EPOCH TIMES

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-logic-a-guide-to-uncivilized-behavior_2734524.html

‘Frenzy Journalism’

The communist regime’s thuggish conduct at the APEC summit was called “tantrum diplomacy.” London-based China Central TV (CCTV) reporter Kong Linlin shared many of the same traits as she staged eye-rolling “frenzy journalism” at the Tories’ annual conference in September on human rights in Hong Kong. Video footage of the 48-year-old Kong hysterically shouting at the meeting and violently slapping an organizer went viral, inviting worldwide attention and reactions.

The security staff had to physically remove Kong from the conference site, while she insisted on her “right to protest” in a “democratic UK.” Kong was briefly arrested by the police and now faces assault charges.

OPINION [Chinese Communist totalitarianism is simply another form of extremest Ideology and idolatry - worshiping the ruling police state. Railing against any form of thought that is not lock-step with its own, it has to steal ideas because it trains its own people to have none]

#apec #kong jinlin #cctv #gui minhai #golden horse awards

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psitrend · 5 years

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Missing in China: people who disappeared in China in 2018

New Post has been published on https://china-underground.com/2018/12/14/missing-in-china-people-who-disappeared-in-china-in-2018/

Missing in China: people who disappeared in China in 2018

2018 was another terrible year for human rights in China.

Between rehabilitation centers in Xinjiang, an ever more invasive and effective surveillance system, social control, a very heavy censorship, and an intensive propaganda, Xi Jinping’s China has become a reference model for the authoritarian regimes, not only from the political point of view but also from the technological one.

The past few years had already been characterized by various limitations of individual liberties and by the disappearance or detention of numerous prominent figures from a cultural point of view, like the case of Hong Kong booksellers, but what happened in 2018 has particularly struck the international attention because almost every month there have been sensational episodes of disappearances of Chinese and foreign citizens.

The pattern is often the same.

If witnesses are present, they tell of agents taking their victims, often also using force.

The arrested are then detained in survey centers to be interrogated.

They are often accused of generic crimes of corruption, within the framework of the anti-corruption campaign of Xi Jinping, who among the important victims has already left on the field political opponents of Xi as Sun Zhengcai in March.

In the meantime, they disappear and are prevented from communicating with the outside, relatives or lawyers.

Sometimes the missing people reemerge to make a self-criticism, like the well-known actress Fan Bingbing, while others disappear forever without a trace.

We try to retrace the most sensational facts.

The citizens of Xinjiang

Uyghur detainees in a rehabilitation center in Xinjiang. (photo April 2017, Lop County (Luopu), number 4 re-education center “洛浦县第四教育培训中心”)

In Xinjiang, the western autonomous region with a Muslim majority, many structures have been introduced and strengthened to hold Xinjiang citizens over the past few years.

In October, China even legalized these re-education camps for “religious extremists”.

According to some reports in these prison camps, up to a million ethnic Uyghur citizens are gathered, to be re-educated according to the requirements of Beijing.

One of the aims is to organize “ideological education to eliminate extremism”, to conduct behavioral and psychological correction operations in order to “help the trainers to transform their thoughts and return to society and their families”.

Gui Minhai, 桂敏海

Gui Minhai and daughter Angela

Gui Minhai is a Hong Kong publisher with Swedish citizenship.

Gui, after being held in custody in China for over two years, was snatched from a train bound for Beijing, while he was accompanied by two Swedish diplomats.

In 2015, Gui became a symbol of the Chinese government’s willingness to suppress criticism from the outside when he disappeared from a holiday in Thailand in 2015.

He was accused by the Chinese media of outrage to party leaders.

After months of his disappearance, he reappeared on national television confessing his guilt for an accident that occurred 10 years earlier, when he killed a person while driving drunk.

In October 2017 he was released, without being able to leave the country.

During a train trip to Beijing, accompanied by two diplomats of the Swedish consulate in Shanghai, the man was approached and taken away by 10 agents.

The two diplomats were accompanying him to the Swedish embassy in the capital for some medical checks.

Meng Hongwei, 孟宏伟, Head of Interpol

Head of Interpol arrested in China

Meng Hongwei, former deputy minister of the Public Security Bureau, was Interpol president from 2016 to 2018, when he literally vanished during a visit to China.

He was later accused of accepting bribes from the anti-corruption authority.

His sudden arrest and his imprisonment, which seems to have occurred without trial, have raised numerous questions about the role that China can play in the world community, and about the legal practices of the Chinese government.

Meng “resigned” in October.

Meng had come to China on September 25, 2018. After sending a knife emoji to his wife, he disappeared.

According to some sources, he was arrested shortly after having arrived in the country, accused of favoring a cybersecurity company.

Lu Guang, 卢广

Lu Guang is a Chinese photographer and his works consist of projects on the social realities of the margins of Chinese society.

On November 3, Lu Guang was traveling to the western region of Xinjiang, when his wife Xu Xiaoli lost all contact with her husband.

Patrick Poon, a researcher at Amnesty International, believes that the Chinese authorities are afraid the photographer has taken some shots that testify the real conditions of what is going on in Xinjiang.

A few days ago, the family was contacted by the Kashgar security office who informed them of the arrest, even if no written document was issued, and the photographer was not allowed to contact the family or his lawyer.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are two Canadian citizens arrested in China.

Some elements may suggest the hypothesis of espionage charges, as a form of retaliation against the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the powerful daughter of the founder of Huawei, happened a few days ago in Canada.

Michael Kovrig is a former diplomat who works for a think tank and is currently held in Beijing from December 10th.

Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur specializing in travel to North Korea, is being investigated by the Dandong City PSB.

Wang Yi

Pastor Wang Yi (photo: Facebook)

Christian pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu was charged with subversion against the state after his church was raided.

Over 100 other members of the congregation were interrogated and taken into custody, some of them reported violence during the period of detention.

The Early Rain Covenant Church is one of the major unofficial churches.

Nothing is known about the situation of the pastor’s wife, Jiang Rong.

Wang risks a sentence between 5 and 15 years. Wang Yi’s assistant Li Yingqiang was also arrested for causing “disorder” online.

Before becoming a pastor, Wang was a human rights activist and was quite famous especially among Chinese Christians abroad.

The Early Rain Covenant Church did not operate underground like many other Protestant congregations in China, but posted online sermons and practiced evangelization in the streets.

In fact, unauthorized religious gatherings are illegal in China, and this year’s amendments to the Religious Affairs Regulation give more power to local cadres to prosecute unauthorized religious groups.

Marxist students

Members of the Solidarity group for Jasic workers pose for a photo in Shenzhen, Guangdong

While in the previous cases the missing people in some way are not aligned with Xi’s vision, that of the Marxist students is a very bizarre case.

The ideological reference point of these students is the one designed by Xi Jinping who strengthened the teaching of Marxism within Chinese universities, reaffirming ideological orthodoxy: less tolerance towards religion, the study of the texts of Marx, Lenin, and Mao.

The fault of these students was paradoxically that of having followed the teachings received too effectively, inexorably triggering the contradiction on which China is founded in the post-Mao era: solidarity with exploited workers, ecology, and rights for women.

Some students like Zhang Shengye were forcibly taken from the campuses and disappeared.

Others like Yue Xin, a 22-year-old student who had reported the case of a suicide of a girl raped by a senior party official, disappeared under other circumstances.

Another 50 students and workers have disappeared with them.

Shao Zhumin, 邵祝敏

Shao Zhumin, bishop of the unofficial Catholic Church aligned with the Vatican, of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, has disappeared, according to some priests of the diocese, despite the historic agreement reached between China and the Holy See just two months before, a preparatory agreement for a diplomatic rapprochement between the Church and the Chinese government.

The Vatican and China had interrupted diplomatic relations since 1951.

Only this year Shao disappeared three more times, each time held for periods between 10 and 15 days.

Fan Bingbing, 范冰冰

Fan Bingbing in Li Chen’s movie Sky Hunter (2017)

Fan Bingbing is one of the most famous Chinese actresses in the world and one of the highest paid.

In July her disappearance caused a stir.

After being under house arrest in a holiday resort in a Jiangsu coastal area, generally used to investigate party cadres, the Chinese actress returned to Beijing.

According to the investigations, which also uncovered the case of the yin-yang contracts used in the Chinese show business, to circumvent the limits imposed on the contracts for the stars, Fan Bingbing would have evaded something like 250 million yuan.

To avoid the arrest, Fan and his company had to pay a fine of 127 million US dollars.

The actress turned to her 62 million followers on Weibo to ask for forgiveness.

#ChineseStudents, #FanBingbing, #HumanRightsInChina, #LuGuang, #WangYi

#chinese students #fan-bingbing #Human Rights in China #Lu Guang #Wang Yi

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