Swedish activist second in days to make televised confession in China

State broadcaster CCTV has televised the second confession from a detained Swedish human rights activist, Peter Jesper Dahlin, only days after the on-air confession of another Swedish citizen, Hong Kong book publisher Gui Minhai, The Financial Times reported. State news agency Xinhua asserted Dahlin had “sponsored activities jeopardizing China’s national security”; his arrest is the latest in an extended campaign against lawyers and rights activists in China. “This is obviously an issue of grave concern for us,” said Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, EU ambassador to China. “We do hope [the detentions] are not a ‘new normal’ but we do see an extremely worrying trend,” he added.