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Chinese diplomat tries to silence Swedish politician

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Chinese diplomat tries to silence Swedish politician

The First Secretary at the Chinese embassy in Stockholm is accused of having tried to stop a Member of Parliament from holding a speech on the democratization of China.

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The Moderate Party's Göran Lindblad claims to have received a phone call from Chen Jinxiang last Thursday, a few days ahead of the Swedish politician's planned trip to Brussels and the Second International Conference for Global Support of Democratization in China and Asia.

"He said that we needed to meet. He wondered if I knew who was behind the conference and I answered that I knew very well. If they hadn't organized it, I would have done so myself.

"He then advised me not to travel. He didn't think I should; it wasn't a good idea," Lindblad told news agency TT.

As vice chairman of the Council of Europe and the organization's former reporter on crimes committed by communist regimes, Lindblad regularly gives talks at events of this kind. He says he is not surprised by the attempt to keep him from travelling.

"It's a communist technique. Communist regimes and other dictatorships work like this.

"As a supporter of immigration, I have the fascists after me as well as the communists. Now I am the Council of Europe's reporter on Iran, so I suppose soon the mullahs will join in too," said Lindblad.

The Moderate politician intends meeting the First Secretary later this month. He also plans to take up the matter with the foreign ministry.

"Since Thursday I have also been getting anonymous intimidation calls. They let the phone ring one, two or three times before hanging up," said Lindblad.

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