Gui Minhai Still In the News

I was looking for news on China, and the first story that came up on bbc.com was about Gui Minhai who was mentioned in the China:The New World Order documentary. The book seller has been sentenced to ten years in prison. I thought it was fascinating that this story, which began with his disappearance in 2015, is still ongoing, and it shows how important these issues are to the rest of the world, especially when it comes to Hong Kong and censorship. It was even more interesting to me that Gui Minhai is actually a Swedish citizen, which made me wonder if this is why he was targeted specifically out of the five book store owners who went missing. The other four were set free. China does not recognize dual-citizenship, and Gui Minhai’s citizenship had been reinstated in 2018. This was also interesting to me because Gui Minhai has been in and out of police custody since 2015, so it seems like it cannot be a coincidence that his citizenship was reinstated. Swedish foreign ministers have been asking for his release and that they be allowed to see the trial footage. However, the Chinese government said the coronavirus was the reason that the consular efforts have been put on hold. Overall, this article encompasses many issues that have been dominating Chinese news such as Hong Kong, censorship, and the coronavirus. This situation seems to me like a lesson to other foreign individuals and nations themselves that China does not take the “exposure” of their practices lightly, and that the censorship laws will be heavily enforced especially for those we are foreign.