‘Naive’ Sweden rewrites its China strategy after year of growing trade ties and diplomatic rows
- Beijing’s Scandinavian trade partner tries to balance its commitment to human rights and democracy with need to maintain economic relations with China
Sweden is updating its China strategy to balance growing trade with concerns for human rights after a difficult year for bilateral relations, the country’s foreign ministry said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström announced the plans in her annual speech to the nation’s parliament on Wednesday, calling on Sweden to do more to promote democracy and human rights around the world.
“China’s stronger international position brings both opportunities and challenges,” Wallström said.
She said China created jobs and growth for Sweden, but also warned that democracy and human rights in China were a “very serious” matter.
Wallström said the “winds of protectionism are blowing ever stronger”, as the trade war between the United States and China became “a threat to the multilateral trade order”.
The development of a new strategy came after Sweden’s ties with China have been strained in the last year by a string of diplomatic debacles, including the disappearance of bookseller and Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, a spat over Chinese tourist behaviour, and allegations that the Chinese military could be using a satellite communications base at Kiruna, Swedish Lapland, built by Beijing in 2016.