Gui Minhai has been detained for:
This site is dedicated to raising awareness of the case of the Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, scholar and co-owner of Causeway Bay Bookstore, Hong Kong.
Gui Minhai was last seen on October 17, 2015, when he left his holiday apartment in Pattaya, Thailand. Since then he has been in detention in mainland China without legal assistance or consular access. Chinese authorities admitted to having detained Gui in January 2016, after state-controlled TV channel CCTV aired a forced confession video of him saying he had caused a traffic accident in 2003, and that he had returned to China voluntarily to turn himself in. Other than this, no information on his status or whereabouts has been given to his family nor to Swedish authorities.
In October-December 2015 four of Gui Minhai’s colleagues were abducted. Although all evidence points to his four colleagues being under strict surveillance, Gui is the only one of the five that remains in illegal detention on the Chinese mainland.
Third forced confession – 8 February 2018
Gui appeared in various media, giving a staged ‘interview’. He claimed to have been ‘used as a political chess piece’ by Swedish diplomats.
Train abduction – 20 January 2018
In November 2017 Gui had sought medical care in Ningbo after having developed some neurological symptoms while in detention. He had been told to seek a second opinion by foreign specialists, so the Swedish embassy in Beijing had arranged for Gui to travel there by train to be examined by a Swedish doctor. Gui was travelling accompanied by two senior Swedish diplomats when the journey was intercepted and a group of ten plainclothes police seized him and carried him off the train. Chinese officials claimed that Gui was now under investigation for illegal business operations, trafficking in state secrets, and ‘illegally spending time with foreign diplomats’. There has been no trial date and no detention notice.
Residential surveillance
Gui phoned his daughter Angela claiming he was now free and had chosen to remain in China for the foreseeable future. He said he had rented an apartment in Ningbo (Zhejiang province) and was able to see his family there. Over the next three months, Gui was in frequent contact with his daughter. From these conversations it emerged that he was not in fact ‘free’, but held in a type of residential surveillance, unable to leave China.
’Release’ from detention
Swedish diplomats were told that Gui was to be released after having served two years for the alleged traffic incident (despite no trial having taken place). However when senior diplomats went to assist him upon his release they were told Gui had already left.
Second consular visit
Swedish consular officials are allowed to meet with Gui again. He still claims not to want any help.
Lam leads a demonstration
Lam Wing-kee holds a press conference
Lam returns to Hong Kong
Third call from Gui
Angela Gui testifies at a US congressional hearing in Washington DC
Gui phones Angela again
Gui phones his daughter Angela
Lee returns to Hong Kong and denies that he was kidnapped
Cheung returns to Hong Kong
Lui returns to Hong Kong
Phoenix TV airs an “interview” with Lee Bo
Appearance on Phoenix TV
Swedish consular officials meet with Gui
Guangdong police confirms custody of three men
Leaked document reveals targeting of Mighty Current
No record of Gui exiting Thailand
Gui appears on Chinese state television
No record of Lee leaving Hong Kong
Lee’s wife reports him as missing
Lee Bo is last seen
Visit by four men
Skype with Angela (daughter)
More people missing
The abduction
Gui last seen leaving his holiday home in Pattaya, Thailand with an unknown man who had been waiting at the gate for him to return.
A few days later the condo staff receive a phone call in which Gui said he was okay and that he was gambling in Cambodia.