China detained bookseller Gui Minhai ‘to stop him from telling his story’

Swedish citizen’s former boss believes Gui was arrested to prevent him from leaving the country before a trial concludes, and calls on the West to ‘wake up’

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Gui Minhai was arrested on Saturday at a train station near Beijing under the watch of two Swedish diplomatic staff. Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

Published: 11:00pm, 24 Jan 2018Updated: 11:33am, 25 Jan 2018

China snatched a Swedish citizen and former Hong Kong-based bookseller to prevent him from telling his story before a trial over his alleged involvement in “illegal book trading” wraps up, his former employer said, citing a source.

Publisher Lau Tat-man, founder and chief editor of Ha Fai Yi Publication, where Gui Minhai was a freelance writer and editor for seven years, believes Gui’s dramatic arrest on Saturday at a train station near Beijing – under the watch of Swedish diplomatic staff – was a bid to stop him from leaving the country.

“The case of Causeway Bay Books has yet to be settled in an official trial, so Gui heading towards Beijing with Swedish diplomats could have been part a plan to get him out of the country,” Lau, citing a reliable source, told the South China Morning Post.

Gui was one of five people who went missing from 2015, all of whom were associated with the bookshop that released titles critical of Beijing. Gui was in Thailand when he disappeared for the first time, then resurfaced in custody across the border. He was freed from prison in October on a drink-driving charge.

Lau could not confirm whether Gui was released on the condition that he stay within the city of Ningbo, in Zhejiang, but he said “I’m sure there are conditions attached to his release”.