Sweden has expelled a Chinese journalist on the grounds that she is a "threat to national security", Swedish media reported on Monday.
The journalist, an unnamed 57-year-old woman, was arrested by Swedish security services in October and expelled by the government in Stockholm last week, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported. She was banned from returning, the Associated Press reported.
The woman arrived in the Scandinavian country some 20 years ago. She had a residence permit and was married to a Swede with whom she has children, according to the television company. The woman had contacts with the Chinese embassy and with people in Sweden who are connected to the Chinese government, SVT reported.
Her lawyer Leutrim Kadriju told SVT that the woman does not believe she poses a threat to Sweden.
"It's difficult for me to go into exact details given that a lot of it is shrouded in secrecy, since this is a matter of national security," Kadri told the broadcaster.
In neighboring Norway, broadcaster NRK reported that the journalist had also reported from that country, as well as from other Nordic countries including Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
Relations between Shokholm and Beijing have been strained for years.
In 2020, a court in eastern China sentenced Gui Minhai, a Swede of Chinese descent, to ten years in prison for selling books critical of the ruling Communist Party. He was accused of "illegally providing intelligence information abroad".
China rejected Sweden's demands for Gui's release.
He first disappeared in 2015 when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand.
The case led to an investigation against Sweden's ambassador to China over a meeting she arranged between Gui's daughter and two Chinese businessmen who the daughter said threatened her father. Ambassador Ana Lindstet was eventually released.
In 2018, a Swedish court found a man guilty of spying for China by collecting information on Tibetans who had fled to Sweden.
Dorje Gijantsan, a Tibetan who worked for an anti-Tibetan radio station, was found guilty of "grave illegal intelligence activity" and sentenced to 22 months in prison.
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