Sweden Expels Pro-CCP Chinese Journalist Over National Security Concerns

The Swedish government has expelled a Chinese journalist, citing her as a serious threat to national security, according to reports by Swedish media on Monday.

The Chinese journalist is a 57-year-old woman, who was arrested by Swedish security services in October last year. She was expelled by Sweden’s Migration Agency last November. On April 4, the Swedish government rejected her appeal against deportation. She is banned from entering Sweden again for life, according to Swedish media.

The Chinese woman arrived in Sweden about 20 years ago. She held a residence permit and was married to a Swedish man, with whom she has children, according to Sweden’s national broadcaster SVT, which didn’t name the woman.

Other media outlets, such as Kinamedia and RFI, have revealed the identity of the woman as Chen Xuefei, who is the president and a journalist of the online, pro-CCP, Chinese-language media ‘Green Post’ in Sweden. She is also the president of the China-Europe Cultural Association.

Most of the articles posted on “Green Post” come directly from the CCP’s official media, and Chen had allegedly received payments linked to the reporting from the Chinese embassy in Stockholm, according to SVT.

The Swedish security services found that Ms. Chen had allegedly cooperated with a Chinese intelligence officer, and had contacts with the Chinese embassy and with people in Sweden who are connected to the Chinese communist regime, according to the media.

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Norwegian broadcaster NRK said that Chen had also reported from there, and from other Scandinavian countries including Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.

A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Stockholm said that China always requests that Chinese citizens comply with the laws of their country of residence, and expects Sweden to guarantee that the rights and interests of Chinese citizens are not violated.

Ms. Sheng said that the infiltration and manipulation of media in Western countries is a very important basis for the CCP’s infiltration. The CCP has made arrangements in the media for its global infiltration.

“The main method of the CCP is to send personnel to the countries that it plans to infiltrate to pretend to be professionals in various fields, especially in the media. It has also bought many influencers and tabloids, and even some traditional mainstream media are influenced and controlled by the CCP,” she said.

The logo of CGTN Europe is pictured on a sign outside the offices of the Chinese state broadcaster in Chiswick Park, west London, on Feb. 4, 2021. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

Mr. Feng pointed out that the CCP’s overseas infiltration activities have become common. Sweden used to regard the Chinese agents as persons promoting friendly relations between the two countries, but now Sweden has changed its legal and political attitude towards them and regards such behavior as a crime.

He said that Sweden’s decision serves as a wake-up call to pro-CCP Chinese citizens overseas. Other countries have also changed their stance to different degrees towards people who represent the CCP’s agenda.

Pro-CCP supporters protest the arrival of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on April 5, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Mr. Feng noted that Western countries already knew about the CCP’s infiltration, but they were dependent on the Chinese market, attaching great importance to economic interests, and were reluctant to give up their interests. “Now China’s market is almost unprofitable, whether investing in it or trading stocks, so now the cost of taking some political actions against the CCP (if it retaliates) is not that high. So, Sweden has taken action against Chen’s criminal behavior. Many countries are in this state now,” he said.

Fang Xiao and Luo Ya contributed to this report.