| This is an OZY Special Briefing, an extension of the Presidential Daily Brief. The Special Briefing tells you what you need to know about an important issue, individual or story that is making news. Each one serves up an interesting selection of facts, opinions, images and videos in order to catch you up and vault you ahead. WHAT TO KNOW What happened? Swedes may be known for avoiding conflict, but the’re in the thick of one now with China. The diplomatic spat stemmed from a call made to police by a Swedish hostel about three Chinese tourists who turned up in the early morning hours — long before their reservation was valid — and tried to stay in the lobby overnight. In an incident captured on video, the tourists threw themselves to the ground, claiming to be sick and screaming “This is killing!” Though the video does not show any police brutality, they made a complaint to the police, and the Chinese Embassy charged that the tourists had been subjected to “brutal abuse.” Swedish police, meanwhile, say an investigation found that officers didn’t commit any crimes. Is that all? Things escalated last week when Swedish satirical show Svenska Nyheter picked up a video of the incident and satirized it with a sketch propagating stereotypes about Chinese tourists, including that they eat dogs and defecate in public. The skit was dubbed in Mandarin and posted on Chinese video site YouKu, attracting a lot of attention — something a spokesperson for Swedish national broadcaster SVT now says was a mistake, though the program director has refused to apologize. Why does it matter? The initial video got millions of views and mixed reactions: Some criticized the police while others condemned the “dramatic” tourists. But the sketch has caused more fallout — and perhaps allowed China an excuse to punish Sweden for larger underlying diplomatic issues. | 