While the China-related headlines have focused on the novel coronavirus outbreak for the last month and a half, you may have missed other breaking news that reveals the continuing trend of China flexing its control inside and outside the country.
Chinese agents first kidnapped Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai in Thailand in 2015 for publishing and selling gossipy books about Chinese political leaders (one book explores President Xi Jinping’s supposed affairs). Authorities then held him in prison and forced him to make televised confessions. In 2017, they claimed to release him—although he remained under house arrest—and a few months later abducted him again while he was on a train with two Swedish diplomats.
Last week, authorities sentenced him to 10 years in prison for “illegally providing intelligence overseas,” even though Gui had no access to any intelligence except his experience of treatment...