The Swedish social commentator and author Kurdo Baksi urge Swedish publishers to stop cooperating with China by having their books, especially children’s books manufactured in China.
This message comes in relation to the international Prison Writers’ Day on 15 November to show solidarity with writers who have been prisoned for using their freedom of speech.
Kurdo is, in particular, mentioning the Swedish publishing companies Tukan and Alfabeta. These publishers are according to themselves cooperating with major British publishers Dorling Kindersley and Usborne Publishing, which has their manufacturing facilities placed in China.
Even though the Swedish publishers in an email write that they are trying to influence the British partners to move their manufacturing to Europe, Kurdo is not satisfied. He believes it is unacceptable to have books created in a place where authors and journalists are prisoned for writing things that are upsetting to the Chinese regime.
Kurdo is, in this respect, mentioning the Swedish poet and publisher Gui Minhai who was detained in Thailand and extradited to China in secret because he had worked to provide Chinese speakers with access to versatile literature by selling certain books in his Hong Kong-based book store.
Gui is still sitting in a Chinese prison, completely isolated from the outside world to this day.
