Sweden’s foreign minister says he does not accept the Chinese embassy’s threat to journalists, but will not expel the ambassador Gui Congyou

In response to yesterday’s demand by opposition parties to expel Chinese Ambassador Gui Congyou, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde told the Swedish newspaper Expressen today that Sweden will not expel the Chinese ambassador.

In response to a request by Swedish opposition parties to expel Chinese Ambassador Gui Congyou, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said today that she would not expel him, but reiterated that she would continue to criticize him. The Swedish foreign minister said he does not accept the Chinese embassy’s threats against journalists, but will not expel ambassador Gui Congyou, New Head Shell reported today.

Linde said Sweden would not use the expulsion of the ambassador to make a political statement. She said Sweden wants to keep the dialogue pipeline open, and the more and the smoother the communication pipeline, the more the two countries can sustain dialogue on topics where they have divergent views. She also reiterated that it is not acceptable for the Chinese Embassy to threaten journalists, and the Swedish Foreign Ministry will continue to criticize Chinese Ambassador Gui Congyou, asking him to respect Swedish law and freedom of expression.

According to the report, Sweden had joined other EU countries in expelling a Russian diplomat in 2018, when the attempted poisoning of a former Russian double agent in the UK took a stand on the incident.