And Anders Holmberg revealed the ambassador

Should political extremists or cruel dictatorships be given platforms to get their message across? This is a difficult question, and it often appears when interviewing.

The answer is that it depends on how the interview is conducted. If you are unable to read or let the subject of the interview slip away from propaganda and lies, you are of course doing it a great service.

But if the interviewer pressures in order to force the interviewee to admit to color, journalism matters. A good example of this is today’s episode of “30 minutes” on SVTAs China’s ambassador, Gui Dongyu, was repeatedly forced to answer a series of difficult questions.

This method makes Chinese officials uncomfortable. They are not used for stubborn or rude interrogation. Or as head of Xi Jinping He said himself 2016The media exist to serve the Communist Party to the extent that “the party is its last name”.

Case above

It is not by chance that Gui Congyou prefers to contact the media of his embassy for interviews. Sitting in Chinese furniture, drinking Chinese tea from luxurious jugs, with silent men in frantically black suits taking notes in the background, the interviewer feels a little uncomfortable.

It is called ruling technology, and it means that an ambassador at home does not usually have to refuse to persecute ethnic minorities in Xinjiang more than once or twice at most.

But alone against Anders Holmberg at SVT studio, he must try to defend the largest concentration of ethnic minorities since World War II a few times.

Then there is another ambassador that we see. When it is not possible to get rid of a difficult question using the first digit point, he has to look in the back of his mind at another question.

It gets so unusual and complicated that Gui Congyou, when he talks about me, gets so deeply involved that he says Taiwan is not part of China. A mistake in the past – at best – cost the jobs of many Chinese officials.

Lies are the truth

The interview is sometimes embarrassing to watch and deserves a lot of laughter, were it not for the fact that the subjects in question are so dangerous. The tone the ambassador used during the interview is serious, too.

“They can say whatever they want,” Guei Congyu chanted after an insulting laugh, when he asked Holmberg what the ambassador’s opinion on political parties that wanted to expel him from Sweden. The Communist Party is completely infallible, and everyone loves it except for a few “anti-China” people who spread lies.

It is brute force. Truth or falsehood is irrelevant. It becomes clear when the ambassador very seriously believes that all journalists are welcome to do their work in Xinjiang without hindrance.

This is despite the fact that the SVT is in Xinjiang just two weeks prior to the interview Harassment by threatening the police So much so, that reporter Ulrika Bergsten “felt for the first time in China that hidden threats were infiltrating under the skin.”

The correct face of the system

Gui Congyou is the highest representative of China in Sweden. The interview in “30 minutes” does not just show what he represents; It also shows the true face of the Chinese system.

In this context, it is important to understand that the Chinese ambassador in Stockholm is by no means unique. From Canada to Britain to Australia, Chinese diplomats are behaving exactly the same way.

They are carefully selected and directed to pursue a policy in line with the uncompromising worldview that Beijing wants to shape. Listen to the facts. The facts are what the Communist Party says. Say no and be the enemy of the party. Enemies risk the consequences.

Anyone who invites to go to Beijing for economic reasons, or imagines that it is possible to distinguish politics and economics in relation to China, should see this interview. Then they have to ask themselves if they want people like Gui Congyou to have a greater impact on their lives.

Because of his watch over China, Jojje Olsson has been repeatedly criticized and even threatened by the Chinese embassy.