38 Facts About Gui Minhai

Gui Minhai, known as Michael Gui, is a Hong Kong-Swedish book publisher and writer.

Gui Minhai is an author of many books related to Chinese politics and Chinese political figures; Gui authored around 200 books during his ten-year career under the pen-name Ah Hai and is one of three shareholders of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong.

Gui Minhai's case has severely strained the relations between Sweden and China.

Chinese state media said in late February 2016 that Gui Minhai was being held for "illegal business operations".

Gui Minhai is alleged to have knowingly distributed books not approved by China's press and publication authority since October 2014.

Gui Minhai is still under detention in China as of December 2019, and was sentenced in February 2020 to 10 years' imprisonment for "illegally providing intelligence overseas".

Gui Minhai served as editor to the People's Education Press until 1988, when he departed for Sweden, and enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Gothenburg.

Gui Minhai's wife is a naturalised Swedish citizen; the couple's daughter was born in 1994.

Gui Minhai returned to Ningbo, China in 1999 and created a subsidiary for a Swedish company known in Chinese as Tangyou, offering air purification products.

Gui Minhai joined the Chinese chapter of PEN International, through which he became acquainted with professionals in Hong Kong International PEN.

Under the name "Ah Hai", Gui Minhai authored around 200 books during his ten-year career.

Lee Bo acknowledged that Gui Minhai's books contained a lot of conjecture and gossip rather than fact, and described Gui Minhai as a businessman whose publishing was motivated by profit rather than ideology.

Gui Minhai went a long period without entering China; he did not visit his father when the latter was ill, and did not return to China for his father's funeral.

Media sources reported that Gui Minhai had published about half of the popular books written on Bo Xilai.

Gui Minhai's publishing financed his property acquisitions in Hong Kong and Germany, including a seaside retreat in Pattaya, Thailand.

The International Publishers Association announced in February 2018 that Gui Minhai was the winner of the association's Publishing Freedom Award for fearless publishing in the face of adversity.

Gui Minhai was captured on closed circuit TV leaving his apartment in Pattaya, Thailand on 17 October 2015, apparently taken away by an unknown man.

Gui Minhai was the second bookseller associated with Causeway Bay Books to apparently vanish without trace: Lui Bo had last been seen near his home in Shenzhen on 14 October 2015; three others would disappear in the weeks that followed.

The Thai authorities have no record of Gui Minhai leaving the country.

Gui Minhai's family contacted the Swedish embassy, and the Swedish police filed a report through Interpol.

Xinhua News Agency published an article on 17 January 2016 stating that an individual by the name of Gui Minhai had been detained relating to a fatal traffic accident in December 2003 in which a schoolgirl died.

Xinhua claimed that Gui Minhai gave himself up to public security officials in October 2015.

Contrary to Xinhua's claims, news reports from 2004 about the court proceedings from the traffic accident did not suggest Gui Minhai intended to abscond, instead he expressed a willingness to assume "full responsibility" in the form of economic compensation.

Gui Minhai denounced Gui as "a morally unacceptable person" who had got him into trouble with the authorities.

Gui Minhai's confession was received with incredulity, and many of the facts surrounding his disappearance from Thailand, including the release of the video three months after his disappearance, were called into question.

Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying: "Given that Gui Minhai has been held nearly three months incommunicado, in a secret location, and without a lawyer, his confession on state-controlled TV lacks credibility".

Gui Minhai confirmed that there had indeed been a drink-driving case involving Gui in which a young woman was killed but that the accident and his disappearance were unrelated.

The Chinese government has said that Gui Minhai was first and foremost a Chinese subject, and the Swedish government seems to have quietly accepted this position.

In late February 2016, state media appeared to clarify the charges against Gui Minhai, saying that Gui Minhai was being held for "illegal business operations".

Gui Minhai was on his way to a medical examination in Beijing accompanied by two senior Swedish diplomats, according to his daughter, Angela.

Gui Minhai, who had been in custody or under close surveillance for the past two years, appeared to have been freed in October 2017.

Gui Minhai 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.

Gui Minhai was told that her father's release would be contingent on her stopping her campaign and avoiding media engagement.

Gui Minhai was detained for charges related to "illegal business operations", according to Chinese officials.

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs declared that Gui Minhai 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 Minhai be "released and that we have access to our citizens to provide consular support".

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

In 2019, Gui Minhai was awarded the Tucholsky Prize by the Swedish PEN.