To the list of people expressing grave concern about the recent treatment of several foreigners by the Chinese government, add the chief European Union representative in China.<\/p>\n
By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
\u200bJAN. 20, 2016<\/p>\n
BEIJING \u2014 To the list of people expressing grave concern about the recent treatment of several foreigners by the Chinese government, add the chief European Union<\/a> representative in China.<\/p>\n At a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday focusing on market access, trade and international security cooperation between the European Union<\/a>and China, the bloc\u2019s ambassador to China, Hans Dietmar Schweisgut<\/a>, said that China\u2019s economy was headed toward \u201ca new normal\u201d as the country seeks to turn toward services and research, among other sectors, and away from low-end manufacturing.<\/p>\n The Chinese economic agenda is \u201cextremely important, not only for achieving a successful transition to a new model and sustainable development,\u201d said Mr. Schweisgut, but also for building \u201ca new China and a new normal.\u201d<\/p>\n That prompted a reporter to ask: Are foreigners facing a new normal of a different kind, in light of the recent string of disappearances, expulsions and detentions of citizens of European Union countries who have defended freedom of speech and human rights in China?<\/p>\n \u201cClearly, I cannot but once again say that we are deeply concerned about all those issues,\u201d Mr. Schweisgut said. \u201cWe do hope it\u2019s not representing the new normal yet. But we do see an extremely worrying trend, and that\u2019s why all these cases are taken extremely seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n In the latest case, Peter Dahlin<\/a>, 35, a Swedish co-founder of the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group \u2014 a nongovernmental organization that trained and provided help to some of the rights lawyers who have been targeted by the government in a crackdown since July \u2014 was detained by the authorities early this month.<\/p>\n Mr. Dahlin is being held at an undisclosed residential location in Beijing on suspicion of endangering state security and other charges, according to people familiar with his situation who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.<\/p>\n In December, Ursula Gauthier, a French journalist, was expelled<\/a> from China for writing in the newsmagazine L\u2019Obs <\/a>that the terrorist attacks in Paris<\/a> in November were not similar to violent and bloody episodes in Xinjiang, a region in western China where Uighurs<\/a>, an ethnic Turkic group, make up about 40 percent of the population. She wrote the article after several Chinese officials had drawn parallels between the two.<\/p>\n And since October, two other citizens<\/a> of European Union countries \u2014 Gui Minhai of Sweden and Lee Bo of Britain, who worked for a Hong Kong publishing company and bookstore specializing in gossipy books about Chinese politics \u2014 have disappeared from Thailand and Hong Kong. The Chinese authorities say they are now in China.<\/p>\n Human rights groups say that China\u2019s record has worsened in recent years. Since July, hundreds of lawyers and legal assistants<\/a> have been detained for questioning, many in unknown locations and some for prolonged periods. About a dozen have been charged in recent days with crimes including state subversion.<\/p>\n The rights groups have also expressed alarm over recent or proposed laws tightening national security, redefining espionage activities and possiblyrestricting the activities in China of foreign nongovernmental organizations<\/a>.<\/p>\n China says that its rights record is steadily improving, and that it investigates suspects in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n At a routine Foreign Ministry news conference on Wednesday, a spokesman, Hong Lei, declined to offer more information about the detentions of Mr. Gui and Mr. Lee, but he said that Mr. Dahlin was being treated well.<\/p>\n