Gui Minhai

Disappearance Gui's colleagues last heard from him on 15 October 2015. Xinhua alleged that Gui Minhai (;

A video confession which was released at the same time and broadcast on China Central Television confirmed Gui's identity. In the 10-minute exclusive video, a tearful Gui expressed his remorse over a killing charge that he had absconded from a decade earlier. He said that his return to mainland China and his surrender were "my personal choice and had nothing to do with anyone else. I should shoulder my responsibility and I don't want any individual or institutions to interfere, or viciously hype up my return". Gui also said, "Although I have Swedish citizenship, I truly feel that I am still Chinese – my roots are in China. So I hope Sweden can respect my personal choice, respect my rights and privacy of my personal choice and allow me to resolve my own problems". Criminal investigations on other charges were said to be in progress.

Release from PSB custody and apparent recapture According to Chinese officials, Gui Minhai was set free on 17 October 2017; Sweden's Foreign Ministry had received notification from the Chinese authorities that Gui had been released, "although neither his daughter nor Swedish authorities knew of his whereabouts" for a certain time afterwards. On 19 January 2018, a group of about 10 men in plain clothes boarded a train bound for Beijing and pulled Gui from the train. Gui was on his way to a medical examination in Beijing accompanied by two senior Swedish diplomats, according to his daughter, Angela. The Swedish government acknowledges the incident. In early February, Gui again appeared in a confession before reporters from pro-establishment news outlets including the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong. Gui, who had been in custody or under close surveillance for the past two years, appeared to have been freed in October 2017. He said that Sweden had sensationalised his case and tricked him into an unsuccessful attempt to leave China using a medical appointment at the Swedish embassy in Beijing as a pretext. They would supposedly wait for an opportunity to repatriate Gui to Sweden. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International denounced "this sort of contrived [confession] made in incommunicado detention". Sweden later condemned China's "brutal intervention" in Gui's case the following week.

Misinformation campaign A study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute which analysed the tweets of Chinese government-controlled accounts banned by Twitter in response to the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests found that the accounts also targeted Gui Minhai. Other dissidents targeted by the bot network included Guo Wengui and Yu Wensheng as well as striking PLA veterans. The misinformation campaign ran from 23 January to 23 February 2018. 23 January was the day news broke that Gui had been seized off a train.

Backdoor diplomacy controversy In February 2019, Gui's daughter Angela made a blog post documenting a "very strange experience" involving Anna Lindstedt, Sweden's ambassador to China. In it, she alleged that Lindstedt contacted her in mid-January and invited her to a meeting in Stockholm that she had set up with some Chinese businessmen who she thought could help secure her father's release. To Angela, Ambassador Lindstedt's presence and seemingly supportive stance suggested the talks were initiated by the Swedish foreign ministry. She nevertheless felt uncomfortable with the meetings. When she later made inquiries of the Swedish foreign ministry, it said it was unaware of the events. On 9 December, Lindstedt was charged by Swedish prosecutors for "arbitrariness during negotiations with a foreign power", with a possible maximum prison sentence of 2 years.

2020 trial and sentence Gui was detained for charges related to "illegal business operations", according to Chinese officials. However, it was announced on 25 February 2020 that he was tried for "illegally providing intelligence overseas", and sentenced Gui to 10 years' imprisonment. Rights groups condemned the "harsh sentence"; Amnesty International said the charges were "completely unsubstantiated" and demanded his release. Jerome A. Cohen and Donald C. Clarke, both respected legal scholars on China, said the use against a former Chinese citizen was in breach of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and the move could foretell its use on any non-ethnic Chinese critic if they so please.

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs declared that Gui was still a citizen due to the fact that "Swedish citizenship can only be renounced after an examination and a decision by the Swedish Migration Agency". Sweden, which had been denied access to the trial, demanded that Gui be "released and that we have access to our citizens to provide consular support". The Chinese foreign ministry said consular arrangements were on hold, and would be restored once the coronavirus epidemic was "resolved".

The EU said "There are serious questions to be answered about this case. His rights, including inter alia to consular access and due process, have not been respected".

Awards In 2018, Gui was awarded the International Publishers Association's IPA Prix Voltaire.

In 2019, Gui was awarded the Tucholsky Prize by the Swedish PEN (Svenska PEN). The Chinese Embassy in Sweden decried the award to "a criminal that committed serious crimes in both China and Sweden", and threatened "bad consequences". The embassy also objected to the attendance of Culture Minister Amanda Lind at the ceremony, saying that Lind would be persona non grata in China if she attended. Since then, the Chinese government has imposed an unofficial ban on the export of graphite to Sweden.