By Jerome A. Cohen

Hong Kong book seller Gui Minhai has just been sentenced to ten years in prison. China’s official press release concerning Gui’s harsh sentence claimed that Gui “applied to restore PRC nationality in 2018.” This alleged application to regain PRC nationality while in grievously coercive PRC incommunicado detention cannot possibly be deemed legitimate in international law. The PRC press release’s implication, of course, is that his PRC nationality has been restored and that this automatically cancelled his Swedish nationality, at least in PRC eyes. But Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Gui is still a Swedish citizen because “Swedish citizenship can only be renounced after an examination and a decision by the Swedish Migration Agency.”

We do not have access to a complete record of PRC police/judicial/diplomatic practice, of course, but I am confident that similar types of abuse have taken place in the case of other foreign nationals who had previously abandoned PRC nationality. However, although my memory may dim, I do not recall the PRC so brazenly and briefly alluding to the issue in a public statement.

Of course, if the PRC would publish the abominable court decisions that purport to justify criminal convictions such as Gui’s, we might learn a bit more. Unfortunately, although the PRC now publishes millions of other court judgments, it still — understandably — often refuses to reveal court decisions in “sensitive” matters where universally respected norms of justice have been violated.

Gui’s continuing mistreatment should be deemed to violate both PRC domestic and international law. The Swedish Government, other nations and the world community should not allow this matter to rest, and it should be of especial interest to the many ethnic Chinese who enjoy non-PRC nationalities, particularly those who formerly were PRC nationals.