Sweden’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that China’s ambassador had been summoned over the arrest of a former Hong Kong-based bookseller and Swedish citizen over the weekend.
Gui Minhai is one of five booksellers residing in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong who went missing in 2015 after publishing or selling titles critical of leaders from China’s ruling Communist party, a turn of events which increased fears over Beijing’s curbing of freedom of speech in the semi-autonomous city.
He resurfaced on state-TV in 2016 confessing to a drink-driving charge, confirming that he had been taken to mainland China. He was released late last year but has been kept under tight surveillance within China, according to reports.