Family’s night in Stockholm puts a chill on China relations

What started out as a holiday to Sweden by a Chinese family has turned into a diplomatic row between the two countries.

A Chinese tourist cries after being removed from a hostel in Stockholm

What started out as a holiday to Sweden by a Chinese family has turned into a diplomatic row between the two countries.

In an incident, which highlights rising levels of tourism by Chinese as well as China’s growing hypersensitivity about perceived criticism in the West, Chinese citizens are now threatening to boycott Swedish goods as the nation becomes increasingly enraged over the incident and its satirical coverage by the Swedish media.

The incident started when a Chinese man and his parents arrived at a hotel in Stockholm earlier this month just before midnight. The family’s booking at the hotel did not start until 2pm the following day.

They insisted on being able to stay in the hotel’s lobby until check-in time. The hotel eventually called the police who evicted them out on to the street. A video, which showed police carrying one of the men who was shouting “this is killing” while his mother called out for help, went viral in China.

Their treatment was heavily criticised by Chinese ambassador to Stockholm Gui Congyou, who said the tourists had been maltreated and accused Sweden of violating diplomatic protocol, warning Chinese tourists not to visit Sweden.

But things got much worse last week when a Swedish television program poked fun at the habits of the increasing number of Chinese coming to Europe.

The sketch on Svenska Nyheter outlined some “dos and don’ts” for Chinese tourists including not to defecate “outside historical heritage sites” in Sweden and while eating. “If you see a person walking their dog on the street, this does not mean that they have just bought their lunch,” it said.

It said Chinese people were racist but Sweden welcomed black people, Arabs, Jews and “even homosexuals..”

That video also went viral on Chinese social media prompting more diplomatic criticism from Beijing and outrage among Chinese citizens.

The Swedish government was quick to argue that the program was satirical and the producers of the program have since apologised twice, insisting that it was meant to be a comedy which also threw a spotlight on attitudes in Sweden.

But Mr Gui has rejected the apologies arguing that they were not sincere enough while Chinese “netizens” are talking of boycotting Swedish goods such as those from Ikea and warning Chinese tourists not to visit the country.

Swedish sources point out that there is a lot more to the story of how China has reacted so strongly to the events, pointing out that Mr Guo, who arrived last year from Russia, has made a point of aggressively condemning any commentary in Sweden which he felt slighted China, with the embassy’s website full of angry responses to opinions in Sweden, even before the incident with the tourists arose.

Sweden has a long history of stable diplomatic relations with Beijing, going back to 1950 when it became the first non-communist country to establish diplomatic relations with mainland China. But ties between the two countries have been strained recently with China’s unhappiness over a visit to Sweden by the Dalai Lama. Even more sensitive in Sweden has been China’s detention of Chinese-born Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, a bookseller based in Hong Kong, who was arrested in January when travelling on a train to Beijing while on the way for medical treatment.