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BEIJING—China expelled a Swedish rule-of-law activist, whose detention on suspicion of endangering state security and subsequent confession on Chinese television drew international attention to the country's latest crackdown on dissent.

Peter Dahlin was released from Chinese police custody and sent back to Sweden on Monday, according to a statement posted on Facebook by a spokesman for China Urgent Action Working Group, a legal aid nonprofit Mr. Dahlin helped set up in 2009. Mr. Dahlin's Chinese girlfriend, Pan Jinling, was also released, the statement said, citing China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sweden's embassy in Beijing confirmed Mr. Dahlin's release Tuesday morning. A statement issued by the Swedish foreign minister said the release came "following frequent contact" between the ministry and Chinese officials.

The specific conditions of Mr. Dahlin's expulsion weren't clear. China's foreign ministry didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. In previous statements, the ministry said Mr. Dahlin was being treated according to law.

Mr. Dahlin's detention earlier this month and his subsequent apology on state TV last week sent an added chill through foreign activist circles already on edge over a government clampdown on Chinese civil rights lawyers and actions to rein in their foreign funding.

Mr. Dahlin was detained along with Ms. Pan on Jan. 3 while the two were on their way to the Beijing airport. He was held for nearly two weeks before being allowed to meet with Swedish consular officers.

State media reports accused Mr. Dahlin of endangering state security by funding Chinese human-rights lawyers and compiling reports on China's rights record. They also alleged that hostile foreign forces planted Mr. Dahlin in China.

In his televised confession on Jan. 19, Mr. Dahlin was shown saying that he funded lawyers who committed illegal acts and that he didn't know whether the content of his human-rights reports was accurate. Supporters of Mr. Dahlin's dismissed the allegations against him as baseless and said they suspected his confession was coerced.

The Swede's detention came amid an escalating crackdown on dissent in China, one that has increasingly targeted the country's small group of human-rights lawyers and the foreign nonprofit groups that support them. Earlier this month, Chinese authorities formalized the arrests of roughly a dozen lawyers and legal assistants on serious charges of subversion or inciting subversion.

China continued to hold another Swedish citizen, China-born bookseller Gui Minhai, according to the Swedish Embassy.

Mr. Gui, a publisher of salacious and critical books about China's leadership, disappeared from his home in Thailand in December. He, too, was shown on China's state broadcaster earlier this month, saying he had come back to China to atone for his role in a 2003 deadly hit-and-run accident.

In her statement, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallströ m said she remained "very concerned" about Mr. Gui's case and that efforts to obtain access to him for consular officers "continue with unabated intensity."

China's foreign ministry has consistently declined to comment on Mr. Gui. Four others associated with Mr. Gui's Hong Kong publishing house, Mighty Current, have disappeared or been detained in recent months.

Having accomplished their goal of spreading fear in civil society circles, Chinese authorities were now trying to soften international and domestic criticism by releasing the accused "after what appears to be a reasonable, if secret, bargain," said Jerome Cohen, a China law expert at New York University.

Mr. Cohen said Mr. Dahlin was more fortunate than the dozens of Chinese activists who aren't well known outside China, and who can't call on foreign governments and international attention for protection. "For them, shock and awe remain the order of the era," he said.

Write to Josh Chin at josh.chin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2016 22:05 ET (03:05 GMT)

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