Embassy warns of
‘consequences’ after the prestigious Tucholsky prize is awarded to jailed Hong
Kong publisher
Sweden’s prime minister has
bravely rejected threats from China that Sweden will “suffer the
consequences” for awarding a freedom of speech prize to the detained
Chinese-born Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, The Guardian reported.
Gui was one of the five
Hong Kong-based publishers and booksellers who disappeared in 2015 having
printed books critical of the Chinese government. He reappeared in 2016 in
custody, saying on Chinese state television that he had surrendered after fleeing
a fatal drink-driving incident 11 years before.
Released in 2017 but prevented
from leaving China, Gui was seized
by plainclothes police while
travelling to Beijing with two Swedish diplomats in January 2018.
Since being filmed making what supporters believe was a confession under
duress, he has been imprisoned.
Earlier this month, Swedish
PEN announced that it would be giving Gui the Tucholsky prize, named after the
German writer Kurt Tucholsky who fled Nazi Germany for Sweden.
It is awarded annually to a
persecuted or exiled writer, with previous recipients including Salman Rushdie
and Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich. Swedish PEN said it had
chosen Gui to honour his tireless work for free speech.
In its vitriolic response, the
Chinese embassy in Stockholm said that the decision to award the prize to Gui
was “not only a sheer farce, but also a mockery of genuine freedom of speech
and a slap in the face of Swedish PEN itself,” born out of an “ulterior
political agenda and consistent biases and hostility against China.”
“As is known to all, Gui
Minhai is a criminal who has committed serious offences in
both China and Sweden. He is a lie-fabricator and rumour-spreader,”
said the embassy, calling on Swedish PEN to cancel the prize. “The producers of
this farce ignore the will of Gui Minhai himself, and act on their own wishful
thinking, self-righteousness and arrogance. They will surely suffer the
consequences of their own actions.”
Despite this, the prize
ceremony went ahead on Friday, with an empty chair on the stage to mark Gui’s
absence. Presenting, Sweden’s culture and democracy minister Amanda Lind said
that those in power should never attack free artistic expression.
Swedish prime minister Stefan
Lofven rebuffed China’s claims. “We are not going to give in to this type of
threat,” he told a TV interviewer. “Never. We have freedom of expression in
Sweden and that’s how it is, period.”
The choice of Gui was also
backed by PEN International, whose president, the writer Jennifer Clement, said
she was appalled at China’s threats.
“This is not the first time
that the Chinese regime has tried to intimidate those highlighting the
egregious case of injustice against Gui Minhai … We fully support Swedish PEN
and its decision,” she said.
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