The think tank Frivärld has, through Patrik Oksanen and Jesper Lehto, examined the Chinese embassy's pressure on Swedish journalists and politicians.

According to the report's authors, the embassy increasingly emails directly to Swedish decision - makers when they do not like something.

- You have to see these emails in context with other events.

We need to be worried about the long-term effect, says Oksanen.

An example that Oksanen mentions in the report is when the journalist Jojje Olsson received threatening emails from the Chinese embassy in Stockholm.

And when Member of Parliament Hampus Hagman (KD) sent in motions about Sweden's and the EU's relations with Taiwan and immediately received an email from the Chinese embassy.

The embassy tried to stop motions

"Proposing to change" Sweden's Trade and Investment Council in Taipei "to" Sweden's office in Taipei ", is in fact an attempt to develop official relations between Sweden and the Taiwan region, which will seriously damage the political basis for relations between China and Sweden. ”

wrote a representative from the embassy in a reprimanded email to Hagman in the autumn of 2020.

- It is absurd that China is trying to influence internal, democratic processes in Sweden.

I was in charge of those motions and there was no talk of withdrawing them or anything like that.

I did not respond to their email, Hagman says to SVT.

In one motion, Hagman suggested setting up a formal Swedish office in Taipei, Taiwan's capital.

In the second, he believes that there are gains in strengthening trade relations with Taiwan.

The Chinese embassy reacted strongly to Hagman referring to Taiwan as a country, and therefore calls the motions a "serious political provocation".

Oksanen suggests measures

Patrik Oksanen emphasizes that the more China uses aggression to get its way, there is a risk that it will not dare to speak out.

- The attacks have a greater effect if they are combined with other tools, such as economic influence and threats of consequences. Over time, that is what worries self-censorship. Editors, debaters, researchers and politicians risk opting out of inconvenient topics such as oppression and human rights violations in the future.