Ni som läser InBeijing regelbundet är redan medvetna om hur Kinas ambassad i Sverige har trappat upp sitt propagandaarbete sedan Gui Congyou blev ambassadör i augusti i fjol.
Bland annat ambassadören hotat svenska regeringen i Sveriges Radio, attackerat mig och andra medier i flera uttalanden, samt ljugit om allt från pressfrihet till Gui Minhai i flera intervjuer med svenska media.
Allt detta har uppmärksammats av stora svenska medier som Expressen och Sveriges Radio. Men väldigt lite har skrivits på engelska om den kinesiska ambassadens nya, offensiva taktik i Sverige.
I syfte att sprida budskapet – och eventuellt även få respons huruvida denna taktik även gäller kinesiska ambassader och konsulat i andra länder – så har jag nu skrivit en lång text på engelska om den kinesiska ambassadens förehavanden under det senaste året.
Texten publicerades på Taiwan Sentinel under gårdagen och har redan fått stor spridning. Där finns bland annat en beskrivning om den kinesiska ambassadörens bakgrund:
The career of Gui Congyou began in 1991 at the Central Policy Research Office, an institution within the Central Committee of the CCP responsible for drafting its ideology and political theories.
During the post-Tiananmen years, the work of this institution was deemed crucial for the survival of the party. One of Gui’s contributions was work on the collapse of communism in former Yugoslavia. His career kept a clear focus on Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and in particular Russia, working at the Chinese embassy in Moscow for over a decade. In 2014, Gui defended Russia’s annexation of Crimea, explaining that while China opposes independence referendums, “this doesn’t apply to Crimea.”
Just after taking up his post as ambassador to Sweden in August 2017, Gui Congyou told an interview with Chinese language media that he had never visited Sweden before, and never had any contact with so-called “Swedish friends” before his appointment. Rather than someone with experience or knowledge about Western Europe, Gui is better described as an anti-democratic political theoretician and an old-school party bureaucrat. What might have been the reasons behind his posting in Stockholm?
Jag skriver om också om den intensiva smutskastningskampanj som Kinas ambassad under de senaste månaderna drivit mot Gui Minhai:
The response was swift. The Chinese embassy sent mail, posts, SMS, and even made phone calls to the signatories, as well as to other journalists and people who were writing about or were otherwise related to the case. Over two thirds of the signatories have confirmed they received several documents by mail — nothing short of a dossier by post — containing information about the alleged criminal activities of Gui Minhai and his flawed personality.
According to this material, during his time in Sweden Gui Minhai had established a “fake school,” the Gothenburg International Institute (GII), which enrolled over 100 students from China to cheat them of their money. The school, the said alleged, had falsely portrayed itself as an arm of Gothenburg University (GU), offering fake degrees without the knowledge of the university. As a result, the Chinese students trapped in financial hardships had to steal or prostitute themselves, with two of them eventually committing suicide due to the situation Gui Minhai had put them in. When the scandal was exposed, the embassy said, Gui Minhai fled Sweden to escape the law.
Denna kampanj är också en av huvudpunkterna i den nya bok jag kommer lansera på bokmässan i Göteborg sista helgen i september.
I syfte att utreda ambassadens smädelser mot Gui Minhai har jag intervjuat flera personer som arbetade med Gui och stod honom nära under tiden i Göteborg, bland annat de tre tidigare professorer vid GII som etablerade institutet och under kort tid anställde Gui som vd.
En del av resultaten och svaren står att läsa i artikeln i Taiwan Sentinel. Där finns också flera exempel på hur ambassadörens arrogans snarast har gett motsatt effekt och på många vis skapat en irritation som lett till ännu större uppmärksamhet kring Gui Minhai i Sverige.
Om du har följt den kinesiska ambassadens beteende under det senaste året, och velat berätta om detta för bekanta som inte läser svenska, kan det vara en idé att dela denna artikel!
