China detains foreigners in crackdown on human-rights advocates

China’s crackdown on human-rights lawyers and book publishers recently expanded to include Swedish and British citizens, a concerning move as China continues to disregard the rule of law. Last week, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) aired two presumably forced confessions by Swedish nationals, neither of whom were allowed representation or trial.

On Thursday, Beijing expelled Swedish human-rights activist Peter Dahlin, the co-founder of China Urgent Action Working Group (China Action), after detaining him earlier this month on charges of violating national security laws. The group has worked in China since 2009, supporting and training local human-rights lawyers. Last week, Dahlin appeared on CCTV solemnly stating he had “violated Chinese law”and “caused harm to the Chinese government”through his work. The TV segment went on to state the group accepted foreign funding and paid lawyers and petitioners in China to provide negative information about the Chinese government in order to tarnish the country’s image.

China Action spokesman Michael Caster said the charges made against Dahlin were baseless and detaining Dahlin “for supporting legal aid in China makes a mockery of President Xi Jinping’s stated commitments to the rule of law.”

Dahlin is the first foreigner to face the wrath of Xi’s campaign against human-rights lawyers. Starting in July, China rounded up 317 lawyers and law firm staff, most of whom were released. Today, 36 lawyers and human-rights defenders remain in confinement, according to Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.

Two days before Dahlin’s “confession,” Chinese authorities paraded missing Swedish publisher Gui Minhai on CCTV to confess that he had willingly returned to China to deal with a hit-and-run incident from 2003. A Hong Kong-based publisher of gossip books on China’s top leaders, Gui vanished from his home in Thailand last October, followed by the disappearance of four of his colleagues. The televised confession was the first glimpse of Gui since his disappearance, which happened while he was working on a book about Xi’s alleged lover.

In his confession, a tearful Gui said he had returned to China out of guilt for a fatal drunken-driving incident in 2003. He asked the Swedish authorities not to get involved: “Even though I am a Swedish national, I truly feel that I am still Chinese and my roots are still in China. So I hope that the Swedish side would respect my personal choice, rights, and privacy, and let me solve my own problems.”

Lee Bo, a British citizen who worked with Gui, went missing in Hong Kong in late December and apparently faxed a note to his wife using similar language, asking her not to get Hong Kong officials involved because he chose to go to the mainland to help with an investigation. Yet on the day of his disappearance, he left his travel permit at home and Hong Kong officials have no record of him legally crossing the border.

France-based Reporters Without Borders called for European Union sanctions against CCTV and the official news agency Xinhua for publicizing the confessions. “By knowingly peddling lies and statements [that] were presumably obtained under duress, CCTV and Xinhua become mass propaganda weapons and cease de facto to be news media,” said Benjamin Ismail, the head of the group’s Asia-Pacific desk.

Yet the irresistible draw of Chinese investments has kept some European countries quiet. Many European embassies did not republish EU statements about the abduction of the Hong Kong booksellers, Dahlin’s arrest, or the expulsion of French journalist Ursula Gauthier in December after she rejected the Chinese media’s claim that the unrest in Xinjiang region was comparable to the November terror attacks in Paris. The Chinese Foreign Ministry claims her reporting “emboldened” terrorists and refused to reissue her press credentials for 2016.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) chairman, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., noted Xi’s “shift toward hard authoritarianism” is alarming because it threatens even foreigners and Hong Kong citizens who disagree with the government. “More than any time in recent memory, China is becoming a garrison state, with security forces empowered by new laws to silence dissent and drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the international community.”

CCEC co-chairman and GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., added that these concerns must dictate U.S.-China relations as China continues its rise on the international stage. “There is both a moral and strategic imperative for the United States to prioritize advances in human rights and democratic governance in China because a government that does not respect the rights and basic dignity of its own people cannot be assumed to be a responsible actor in the global arena.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.