Gui was born in China but moved to Sweden as a student and gained permanent residency after the Tiananmen crisis in 1989. Beijing claimed Gui’s detention was related to a 2003 traffic accident in which a young woman was killed. In a second video he was shown also professing to having evaded customs rules to ship books to Chinese residents. A second foreign ministry spokesperson, responding to questions on the case, warned that “any foreigners in China, including officials at the foreign embassies or consulates in China, should not violate international law or Chinese law.” Whatever Chinese law happens to be that day. “The idea is we want to sell more widgets in China with or without free trade,” said a senior adviser to Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Source: National Post February 08, 2018 15:46 UTC