EU urges release of publisher

BEIJING: The European Union’s ambassador to China urged Beijing yesterday to “immediately” release a book publisher after the Swedish citizen was snatched for a second time while accompanied by Swedish diplomats.

The case of Hong Kong-based Gui Minhai, 53, has sparked a diplomatic spat between Stockholm and Beijing, with Chinese authorities declining to give any details about his whereabouts amid concerns about his health.

His daughter, Angela Gui, has said that he was detained by around 10 plainclothes police on Saturday while on a train to Beijing from the eastern city of Ningbo, where he was living, while accompanied by two Swedish diplomats.

Her father had been travelling to Beijing to see a Swedish doctor as he was showing symptoms of the neurological disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, she added.

“We expect the Chinese authorities to immediately release Mr Gui Minhai from detention and allow him to reunite with his family, to get consular support and to get medical support,” EU ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut said at a news conference in Beijing.

His apparent arrest comes as civil society has come under increasing pressure in China since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012, with authorities rounding up hundreds of lawyers and activists.

One of five Hong Kong-based booksellers known for salacious titles about the lives of China’s political elite, Mr Gui first went missing in 2015 while on vacation in Thailand and resurfaced at an undisclosed location in China.

Amnesty International described Saturday’s incident as “absolutely appalling” and called for Mr Gui to be released.