BEIJING — The European Union on Wednesday joined Sweden in calling on China to immediately release a Swedish book publisher who was taken off a train in front of his country’s diplomats by Chinese police four days ago. The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday indicated Gui Minhai, the Hong Kong-based book publisher, and the Swedish diplomats who were with him may have been breaking Chinese law. On Tuesday, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallstrom said in a news release that China has given no clear explanation for Gui’s detention. Wallstrom said the Swedish diplomats accompanying Gui had been “providing consular assistance to a Swedish citizen in need of medical care. His daughter told Radio Sweden, the English-language service of national broadcaster Sveriges Radio, that her father was on a train with two Swedish diplomats on Saturday when a group of police officers seized him.

Source: National Post January 24, 2018 06:02 UTC