Relations between Sweden and China were tense even before the Swedish government said Wednesday it would call for an investigation the source of Covid-19. Swedish activists have established a change.org petition calling for the city of Gothenberg to rename a square in front of the Chinese consulate in honor of imprisoned bookseller Gui Minhai. This month the last of the Confucius Institutes in Sweden was closed.
The tensions are not new. A problem involving Chinese tourists checking into their lodging in 2018 became an International incident that escalated following this satire that aired on Swedish television.