By Jerome A. Cohen

A few colleagues and I have had some discussion on Gui Minhai’s case, in particular why the Chinese government forced Gui to regain Chinese nationality in 2018. In fact, as a colleague pointed out, Gui’s is not the first case of this kind. His fellow bookseller Lee Bo, who was disappeared from Hong Kong and reappeared in Mainland custody in December 2015, also supposedly renounced his British citizenship while in detention.

As China does not allow dual nationality, the Chinese government claims that Gui gave up his Swedish citizenship when regaining Chinese nationality. But this tactic is abusive and also contrary to international law (Read also Tom Kellogg’s excellent article on “News of a Kidnapping: The Gui Minhai Case and China's Approach to International Law“ here). Below is my colleague Yu-Jie Chen’s take, with my own response following.

Regarding Gui's citizenship, Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that “Swedish citizenship can only be renounced after an examination and a decision by the Swedish Migration Agency,” so it seems that from the Swedish point of view, Gui is still a citizen despite China's claim otherwise. China's tactic of coercing Gui into restoring Chinese nationality is apparently to deflect international criticism and to also bypass its obligations towards Sweden under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (consular visits & the arrangement of legal representation etc). I think the Swedish government should argue that China has violated international law and Sweden's sovereign rights in this case. Given Beijing's expansive notions of sovereignty, it'd be interesting to see its response, but I wouldn't hold my breath. There's also a bigger issue for the international system — if China could keep doing this, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations will be undermined. Obviously, what's the use of having China's commitment to facilitating consular protection if there's a cunning way to exclude its application in the first place?

Yu-jie has identified the general implications of the PRC actions against Gui and Sweden for implementation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Let’s think for a moment. The PRC’s innovative rationale and practice purporting to erase the foreign nationality of a former PRC national, if acquiesced to by the world community, are easily capable of extension to all foreign nationals, whatever their backgrounds. If, for example, I should be permitted to return to China again, the PRC might detain me and then announce that I have applied for PRC nationality while in custody and that my application has been accepted, with the consequence, according to PRC law, that I have surrendered my American nationality!

This novel technique would render meaningless not only the PRC’s obligations — and other countries’ rights — under the Vienna Convention but also the respective obligations and rights under all of the PRC’s many bilateral treaties concerning consular matters! Foreigners who enter China would then have no protection against arbitrary detention and their governments would be deprived of one of their basic sovereign rights. This should hurt the feelings of all foreign people! Caveat traveler!! And this heinous practice could be further extended to apply to anyone whom the PRC kidnaps from outside China, like Gui, and secretly transports to the PRC!