[citation needed] New research on 1913-1917 post-Qing relations claim that the head of the Swedish Geological Survey, Johan Gunnar Andersson's work was part of Sweden's ‘extractive vision’ which dealt with aiding exploitative interests of Swedish industrial and foreign-policy actors by seeking to secure, for Sweden, a quasi-colonial presence in Republican China, centering on large-scale extraction of Chinese iron ore, profit-maximizing iron exports throughout the Pacific region and construction and operation of China's largest steel mills and weapons factories.

[1][2] For this occasion, chairman Mao Zedong decided to personally receive the Swedish ambassador, Torsten Hammarström, as he presented his letter of credentials,[5] which was quite unusual, and a sign that China attached great importance to this diplomatic breakthrough.

The ship was welcomed in Shanghai by King Carl XVI and Queen Silvia of Sweden who made an official visit to China that year.

[2][better source needed] The disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers including notably the extrajudicial rendition of author–publisher Gui Minhai, a Swedish national, from his residence in Thailand in late 2015 would catalyse sharp deterioration in relations.

[9] In July 2019, British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce delivered a joint international statement on Xinjiang at the United Nations General Assembly's Third Committee on behalf of 23 countries, including Sweden.

[10][11][12] In November 2019, Chinese ambassador Gui Congyou threatened Sweden saying that "We treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we use shotguns."

[20][21] In 2024, the Jamestown Foundation reported that over 100 organizations of the Chinese Communist Party's united front were in operation in Sweden, including a center dedicated to technology transfer as well as cultural, educational, professional, and political groups.

[23] In November 2024, Swedish police opened an investigation into a Chinese shipping vessel, the Yi Peng 3, in the Baltic Sea after it was found be in the vicinity of two severed undersea fiber-optic data cables and suspected of sabotage.