China: PEN International and PEN Centres worldwide renew call for the release of Gui Minhai, the imprisoned poet, bookseller and PEN member
Image Credit: AP / Alamy
‘The abduction of poet, bookseller and PEN member Gui Minhai ten years ago was an alarming escalation of the Chinese government’s resolve to silence criticism and extend its repressive state apparatus beyond its borders. Today, we continue to stand in solidarity with Gui Minhai and demand his immediate release’, said Burhan Sonmez, President of PEN International.
17 October 2025: Today, on the 10-year anniversary of Gui Minhai’s kidnapping, PEN International and PEN Centres around the world stand in solidarity and renew our demand for his immediate and unconditional release. We also call on governments worldwide to act in support of securing his freedom.
Gui Minhai is a poet, bookseller and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC) who is serving a 10-year prison sentence imposed after his conviction on trumped-up national security charges on 24 February 2020. He is one of five Hong Kong booksellers who were subjected to enforced disappearance in late 2015 and the last who remains imprisoned.
On 17 October 2015, Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen, was abducted from his vacation home in Thailand and was not seen in public until months later, when PRC state media aired a forced confession video where Gui Minhai claimed he had voluntarily returned to China to turn himself in for a 2003 traffic offence. Briefly released while under continued surveillance in late 2017, Gui was subsequently detained by plainclothes police officers on 20 January 2018, whilst in the company of two Swedish diplomats on his way to Beijing for medical testing.
Despite repeated efforts from the Swedish government to ascertain the whereabouts and well-being of their citizen since January 2018, the Chinese government has repeatedly failed to disclose Gui Minhai’s location and has denied him full consular access, a violation of international law.
In the absence of any updates, there are increasing concerns over Gui Minhai’s access to adequate medical care, the denial of which is routinely used as a form of punishment and deliberate ill-treatment for those detained on politically motivated grounds. High-profile examples include writer, Nobel laureate, and two-time president of the ICPC, Liu Xiaobo, who was belatedly diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer while serving an 11-year prison sentence. One month after his diagnosis, Liu died in a hospital bed under police guard, raising serious questions about his treatment.
Additional information
Gui Minhai, born on 5 May 1964, was the owner of Mighty Current Media and joint owner of its retail arm, Causeway Bay Books, which, before its closure in Hong Kong, was a popular destination for those seeking to buy books that were banned or otherwise unavailable in China’s mainland. Several poems written by Gui during his initial detention were published in 2020 as a poetry collection titled, I draw a door on the wall with my finger (2020). In 2019, Gui Minhai was awarded PEN Sweden’s Tucholsky Prize.
Signed:
PEN International
Independent Chinese PEN Center
PEN Sweden
PEN America
PEN Paraguay
Pen Belgique Francophone
PEN Argentina
PEN Québec
PEN Trieste
PEN Chile
PEN Denmark
PEN Vietnamese Abroad Centre
PEN Afghanistan
PEN Latvia
PEN Bolivia
PEN Centre of German-Language Writers Abroad
PEN Syria
PEN Esperanto
PEN Sydney
Swiss German PEN Center
PEN Türkiye
PEN Malaysia
PEN New Zealand
PEN Lebanon
PEN Nederland
Palestine PEN
PEN Català
PEN Nigeria
PEN Cuba in Exile
PEN Slovenia
PEN Norway
PEN Bangladesh
PEN Chiapas
PEN Flanders Belgium
PEN Eritrea
Pen Romania
English PEN
Macedonian PEN
PEN Ukraine
PEN Cambodia
PEN Malta
Uyghur PEN
PEN Zambia
PEN Canada
PEN Sierra Leone
PEN Korean Centre
PEN Uganda
PEN Sri Lanka
PEN Melbourne
PEN Zimbabwe
PEN Jordan
PEN Finland
PEN Afrikaans
Japan PEN Club
Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
PEN South Africa
Wales PEN Cymru
Austrian PEN
PEN Perth
P.E.N. Club Liechtenstein
PEN Belarus
PEN Myanmar
PEN Greece
PEN Togo
PEN Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tibetan writers Abroad PEN
Note to Editors:
For further information please contact Ross Holder, Head of Asia-Pacific region at PEN International, email: [email protected]
For media queries, please contact Sabrina Tucci, PEN International Communications and Campaigns Manager, [email protected]