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Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai ‘snatched’ by mainland Chinese authorities from train to Beijing

Daughter says he was visiting Sweden’s embassy for a medical exam

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Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai was accompanied by two Swedish diplomats when he was snatched. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong-based publisher Gui Minhai, one of the Causeway Bay booksellers whose disappearance two years ago caused an international storm, was snatched again by mainland Chinese authorities from a train heading for Beijing over the weekend, his daughter reported on Monday.

Angela Gui told the Post that her father, accompanied by two Swedish diplomats, was travelling from Ningbo city in Zhejiang province on Saturday when around 10 police officers in plain clothes boarded their train near the capital and grabbed him.

Gui’s disappearance in 2015 raised public safety concerns in Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Gui’s disappearance in 2015 raised public safety concerns in Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
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She did not go into details, but confirmed a New York Times report saying her father, a naturalised Swedish national, was visiting Sweden’s embassy in Beijing for a medical examination.

In a statement to the Post, Sweden’s foreign ministry quoted its minister, Margot Wallström, as saying: ”The Swedish government has detailed knowledge of what has happened and I have summoned China’s ambassador. I have also been promised information about Mr. Gui’s situation.”

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The minister added: ”The situation has worsened since Saturday morning and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has been working around the clock on this matter ever since.”

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