Gui Minhai says he was ‘played’ by Sweden in surreal ‘interview’ at detention center

He called on Sweden to stop ‘hyping up’ his case and said he was considering giving up his Swedish citizenship

Detained Swedish citizen and Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai has resurfaced yet again, giving an extremely surreal joint “interview” to several different media outlets in which he claims that he was living happily in China before being bamboozled into trying to leave by Swedish diplomats.

In a one-and-a-half minute long video published by the Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily, Gui says that he was enjoying a “free and happy” life in the eastern city of Ningbo, until Swedish diplomats convinced him to take a train to Beijing for medical treatment, as an excuse for him to then board a plane and fly out of the country to Sweden. In the arranged interview, Gui said that the Swedish diplomats were keeping him in the dark about what really was going on.

The brief video interview was apparently part of a longer 20-minute one at a detention facility in Ningbo where Gui is being held that was attended by reporters from several outlets from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, including the South China Morning Post which reports that Gui accused Sweden of using him like a “chess piece” ahead of the Swedish national elections later this year in order to make trouble for China — the paper fails to explain what exactly Gui means by that accusation.

“I have seen through the Swedish government. If they continue to create troubles, I may consider giving up my Swedish citizenship,” Gui was quoted as saying by the SCMP.

The paper reports that later in the interview Gui said that he instead hopes to live in China.

Gui was infamously snatched from a Beijing-bound train by a group of 10 plain clothes officers in January, right in front of the eyes of two Swedish diplomats. His daughter, Angela Gui, said that her father was travelling to the capital in order to undergo a medical exam at the Swedish embassy after being diagnosed with the neurological disease ALS.

A statement released on Monday by Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström condemned China’s “brutal” detention of Gui, calling the Chinese government’s actions “in contravention of basic international rules on consular support.”

“We demand that our citizen be given the opportunity to meet Swedish diplomatic and medical staff, and that he be released so that he can be reunited with his daughter and family,” the statement concluded.

However, according to the Oriental Daily, Gui wants Sweden to stop “hyping up” his case and already sent a letter to the Swedish ambassador to that effect. After seeing no change, he purportedly asked police to arrange for him to speak with the media in order to better “clarify the situation.”

SCMP also quotes Gui as saying that he had requested the meeting with the press in order to tell the public the “truth” of what had happened to him, accusing the Swedish government of “sensationalizing” the incident.

According to the paper’s recounting of the interview, Gui said that Swedish diplomats essentially pestered him into trying to leave China by continually bringing up the topic with him until he finally relented and agreed to the plan, which then backfired on them.

“My wonderful life has been ruined and I would never trust the Swedish ever again,” he said, adding that he fully regrets taking the train north.

Oriental Daily also claims that at the time that he was snatched from the train, Gui was carrying a number of documents dealing with national security intelligence and therefore had been detained for sharing state secrets with foreign entities.

In addition, the report alleges that Gui had been examined by a doctor in Ningbo who had not found that he was suffering from ALS as his daughter claimed, but that he had problems with his spine that were affecting his muscles.

Of course, this all feels like a bit of déjà vu.

Gui Minhai was one of five managers and staff at Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, a book store known for publishing material and gossip critical of China’s central government, who mysteriously went missing in late 2015. Gui disappeared from his holiday apartment in Thailand in October of that year, only to reappear in January 2016 on Chinese state television, making a tearful “confession” to killing a student while drunk driving in the mainland over a decade ago.

Gui, who was born in China, became a Swedish citizen in the 1990s after going there to study. However, during his taped “confession,” he insisted that he wanted to handle his case without the help of Swedish authorities, something that his friends and family say he was clearly forced into saying. During their detainments, the booksellers were all questioned about their involvement in an “illegal book trading ring” on the mainland. In their televised confessions, Gui was fingered as the head of this illicit business.

After serving time for a so-called “traffic offense,” Gui was formally released from Chinese custody last October, however, his daughter said that she had no idea where he was or how to contact him. Eventually, Angela, who is studying in the United Kingdom, discovered that her father was living in an apartment in the city of Ningbo under police surveillance, where she was able to communicate with him through Skype.

After initially staying quiet about Gui’s most recent disappearance, China broke its silence on Tuesday with Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang confirming that he had been detained for breaking Chinese law.

Angela says that she now fears her father will be put behind bars for a long time with China accusing him of “sharing state secrets,” a charge she finds inconceivable.

“There is no way that he would know any state secrets that wouldn’t have anything directly to do with his case,” she told the Guardian. He was in incommunicado detention for two years. So who would have told him these state secrets?”

“I can only guess that it might have something to do with what happened when he was taken the first time. And that whoever ordered this didn’t want this to come out,” she added.

According to the SCMP, during his interview at the detention center in Ningbo, Gui was asked if he had a message for his daughter:

“I feel ashamed about myself. I have made mistakes. I have promised my old mother that I would spend Lunar New Year with her. My message to my family is that I hope they will live a good life. Don’t worry about me. I will solve my own problems myself.”

Human rights observers have wasted no time in heaping skepticism and criticism on Gui’s latest “interview.”