Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou criticized freelance journalist Jojje Olson for almost “splitting up” Taiwan in a televised interview, which was mocked by Olson in a video. (Screenshot of the video)
Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou was summoned by the Swedish government after his letter threatening freelance journalist Jojje Olson caused public outrage. Still unabashed, Gui continued to criticize Olson on TV, but was ridiculed by Olson when he almost described Taiwan as an independent country during the interview.
Last Wednesday, Gui appeared on the Swedish primetime talk show “30 Minutes”. When the host mentioned his letter “warning” Olsen, Gui replied in Chinese: “Yono claims to be an expert on China, but he is neither studying China in Sweden nor in China, but has gone to … once …in…Taiwan…Taiwan is also a part of China, but in Taiwan he colluded with the Taiwan secessionist authorities, and frequently made anti-China wrong statements.”
This statement by Gui Congyou was almost an admission that “Taiwan does not belong to China”, and only after a moment of stammering did he add “Taiwan is also a part of China”.
This scandal was caught by Olsen and uploaded to his Youtube channel with the caption, “In a Swedish TV interview, Ambassador Gui Congyou says Taiwan is not part of China.”
Although the Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly claimed that “Taiwan is part of China (the Chinese Communist Party state),” in fact there is no affiliation between the Chinese Communist Party state and the Republic of China. Therefore, it is not easy for CCP officials and the party media to maintain “political correctness” in their narrative at all times. The narrative that “Taiwan is an island nation” has appeared in earlier CCTV news reports.
In March this year, Olson published an article accusing the CCP of boycotting H&M as “part of a political game” and then attacked the CCP for human rights violations in Xinjiang. As a result, Olson received several letters from the Chinese embassy warning him. In the letter, Gui even threatened that Olsen would “face serious consequences” if he did not stop his “untrue comments” about China.
Previously, the Chinese embassy in Sweden has repeatedly threatened journalists to influence freedom of expression in the country, and two major opposition parties in Sweden have proposed expelling Gui. After the revelation of Gui’s threats against Olsen, the opposition parties became even more determined to urge the authorities to act.
In response, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said they had summoned the Chinese ambassador several times to tell him that freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed in Sweden, that the Chinese side must respect Swedish law, and that threatening behavior is not acceptable in Sweden.
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