ARRESTED OVER CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP.

Adding another strange wrinkle to Canada-china relations, a Chinese official who oversaw research on his country’s burgeoning navalsubmarine fleet has been placed under arrest in China and accused of illegally obtaining Canadian citizenship.

Bu Jianjie, who reportedly spent time as a visiting scholar at two Ontario universities in the mid-1990s, has also been charged with various corruption-related crimes and expelled from the Communist party.

The Canadian citizenship accusation stems from China’s ban on holding dual nationalities. Despite being a scientist with access to navaldefence technology and apparent citizenship from a Western country, however, authorities have not charged him with spying.

China detained a Canadian businessman and an ex-diplomat after Canada’s arrest of top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in what were seen as a tit-for-tat moves, but Canadian officials said there’s also no evidence Bu’s troubles are tied to the uproar over Meng.

“Global Affairs Canada is aware of these reports (about Bu),” said Guillaume Bérubé, a Global Affairs Canada spokesman. “We are not aware of any connection between this case and other recent cases of Canadians detained in China.”

Bérubé did not respond to questions about whether Bu is, in fact, a Canadian citizen or whether he was offered the help of the Canadian embassy in Beijing.

Bu was head of the 718th Research Institute at China Shipbuilding Industries Corp., a state-owned firm heavily involved in supplying the country’s growing navy, including its first domestically built aircraft carriers.

The South China Morning Post suggested Bu worked on fuel systems for the “airindependent propulsion” technology used to make non-nuclear subs harder to detect underwater.

National Post could not confirm that claim, and the institute’s public website talks mainly about making civilian products. But research papers available online indicate that the 718th develops equipment for ensuring livable air quality in submarines. Articles from institute scientists, for instance, discussed systems for eliminating carbon dioxide and creating oxygen in subs.

A glowing 2006 profile of Bu in the Hebei Workers’ Daily newspaper indicates his institute did research for “national defence construction,” some of which was also used in China’s first manned spacecraft.

The same article says he went to London, Ont.’s Western University and Queen’s in Kingston as a visiting scholar in 1996. Neither university was able to turn up information on his visit by deadline.

News of B u ’s arrest emerged in Asia in late December. According to a notice from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, he “obtained Canadian nationality in violation of regulations” and did not report personal information as required.

Bu is also accused of failing to report income, using his job to illegally obtain money and taking bribes, the notice said.

“As a leading party cadre, Bu Jianjie lost his ideals and beliefs, succumbed to greed, seriously violated the party’s discipline.”

Under Chinese law, someone who obtains foreign citizenship automatically loses their Chinese nationality, said Donald Clarke, a professor and China legal expert at the George Washington University law school. Even so, the rule is sometimes ignored.