Sweden has expelled a Chinese journalist who has been categorised by the authorities as a “serious threat to security.”
The Swedish media outlets Göteborgs-Posten and SVT both reported the expulsion on Monday.
The journalist was said to have been in close contact with Chinese diplomats in Sweden for several years. SVT reported she was named last year in a report by a think tank about Chinese foreign media with close links to the Chinese Communist Party and pro-Chinese “lobbying.”
Ex-Swedish China envoy on trial over talks to free bookseller Gui Minhai
Ex-Swedish China envoy on trial over talks to free bookseller Gui Minhai
The media outlets reported that the unnamed 57-year-old woman, who denied all the accusations, came to Sweden almost 20 years ago, where she is said to have married a Swedish man. She is reported to have been in close contact with the Chinese embassy and organised trips by Chinese delegations to Sweden.
She has been held in custody since October 2023, according to the reports. The Swedish Migration Agency then decided to deport the woman. She appealed the decision, but it was rejected by a Swedish court.
Göteborgs-Posten and SVT reported that the Swedish government decided last Thursday to deport the journalist permanently and for life. According to her lawyer, the Chinese woman denies posing a threat to Sweden’s national security.
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Her lawyer, Leutrim Kadriu, told SVT the woman doesn’t believe she poses a threat to Sweden.
“It is difficult for me to go into exact details given that much is shrouded in secrecy, as this is a national security matter,” Kadriu told the broadcaster.
In neighbouring Norway, broadcaster NRK said the journalist had also reported from there, and from other Nordic countries including Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
China’s embassy in Stockholm was not immediately available for comment.
Relations between Stockholm and Beijing have been tense for years.
In 2020, a court in eastern China sentenced Chinese-born Swedish national Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison for selling books that were critical of the ruling Communist Party. He was charged with “illegally providing intelligence overseas.”
Ex-Swedish China envoy cleared in jailed bookseller Gui Minhai case
Ex-Swedish China envoy cleared in jailed bookseller Gui Minhai case
China has rebuked Sweden’s demands for Gui’s release.
He first disappeared in 2015, when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand.
The case led to an investigation of Sweden’s ambassador to China over a meeting she arranged between Gui’s daughter and two Chinese businessmen whom the daughter said threatened her father. The ambassador, Anna Lindstedt, was eventually cleared.
In 2018, a Swedish court found a man guilty of spying for China by gathering information on Tibetans who had fled to Sweden. Dorjee Gyantsan, a Tibetan who worked for a pro-Tibetan radio station, was found guilty of “gross illegal intelligence activity” and sentenced to 22 months in jail.
Swedish security services said in February that China, as well as Russia and Iran, posed the biggest security risks to the country.
Additional reporting by Reuters
