imprisoned for selling books

Luke de Pulford, the Founder and Executive Director of IPAC (Interparliamentary Alliance on China) presented Gui Minhai’s bilingual poetry collection Jag ritar en dörr på väggen med fingret [I draw a door on the wall with my finger], as a gift from Gui’s daughter Angela to Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te at the Ketagalan Forum in Taipei on the 5th of August. Read Luke de Pulford’s post on X here, and an article in Expressen‍ on it (in Swedish) here.

Gui Minhai has been selected as a shortlisted nominee for the Disturbing the Peace Award to a Courageous Writer at Risk. The prize is awarded by the Vaclav Havel Center and recognises “authors of distinguished works of fiction, literary nonfiction, biography, memoire, drama, or poetry who are courageous in dissent and have suffered unjust persecution because of their outspoken defense of democracy and human rights.” (Read press release by the Vaclav Havel Center here).

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Sweden on the 4th of July 2026. Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told Sveriges Radio: “We are being told that he is in good health. We will continue to work relentlessly for his release” (in Swedish, here).

Ahead of the visit, Reporters Without Borders issued a press release calling on Sweden to make use of the opportunity that the visit offered for securing Gui’s freedom (here).

Expressen alsopublished an op-ed by Gui Minhai’s daughter Angela Gui (in Swedish, here).

No evidence has been presented to support the claim that Gui is in good health. After the visit, the Consulate-General of China in Gothenburg published a press release which reaffirmed the Chinese position that Gui Minhai is now a Chinese citizen (here).

“Det fria ordets plats” (“The place of free speech”), a new space in the Swedish Parliament House was inaugurated on the 29th of April to mark the upcoming World Press Freedom Day on the 3rd of May. The plight of Gui Minhai was mentioned in speeches by Speaker of the Riksdag Andreas Norlén and RSF Sweden spokesperson Erik Larsson. MP Per-Arne Håkansson wrote about the event (in Swedish) here.

Read (or listen to) coverage by Sveriges Radio (in Swedish) here.

Swedish journalist and activist Kurdo Baksi, Kaunitz-Olsson, the Gothenburg Book Fair, The Swedish Union of Journalists, the Publicists’ Club, RSF Sweden, the Swedish Publishers’ Association, Swedish PEN, and the Swedish Writers’ Union organised a Kulturafton – a ‘culture evening’ in support of Gui Minhai in Stockholm on the 16th of October. The event included readings of Gui’s poetry and writing of letters to Gui in prison.

Members of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with the People’s Republic of China raised concerns over Gui Minhai’s case in the first EU-China Inter-Parliamentary Meeting since 2018. Read statement by the bureau of the delegation here.

90 NGOs issued a joint statement calling for the release of Gui Minhai, for him to be granted consular support and unhindered access to communication with his daughter. The statement also called for the Swedish government, the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Commission, and EU Member States to publicly and in bilateral meetings urge the Chinese regime to immediately release Gui. Read press statement by RSF here, and the full statement here.

Amnesty International also released a statement calling for Gui’s release, here.

Ahead of the tenth anniversary of Gui Minhai’s imprisonment, Chinese Human Rights Defenders has released a statement calling for the Swedish government to “urgently impose a higher price on Beijing to secure his immediate release”. Read the statement here.

A resolution in European Parliament to demand the release of Gui Minhai as the tenth anniversary of his imprisonment approaches was passed with 546 votes in favour on the 9th of October. Read the resolution here.

Swedish MEP Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL) has proposed a resolution for European Parliament to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Gui Minhai, and has requested that the Parliament submits a formal request for Sjöstedt to be allowed to visit Gui in prison. Coverage and interview with Sjöstedt (in Swedish) by Swedish TV4 here.

17 NGOs, including Amnesty International, FORUM-ASIA, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, and Christian Solidarity Worldwide released a joint letter on the 15th of July 2025 ahead of the EU-China Summit calling on the EU to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Gui Minhai and others. Read the letter here.

On the 22nd of July, Reporters Without Borders issued a press release urging the EU to demand Gui’s release. Read the press release here.