Canadian held in China; exec granted bail
CHINA’S DETENTION OF CANADIAN LOOKS LIKE RESPONSE TO HUAWEI ARREST, EX-DIPLOMATS SAY
Aformer Canadian diplomat has been detained in China, in what two former Canadian ambassadors to that country say looks like retaliation for the arrest of a top Chinese telecom executive in Vancouver earlier this month.
“We are aware of the situation of the Canadian detained in China,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Tuesday. “We have been in direct contact with the Chinese diplomats and representatives. We are engaged in a file which we take very seriously.”
Global Affairs Canada wouldn’t identify the detained Canadian “due to provisions of the Privacy Act,” but earlier media reports said he is Michael Kovrig, who has worked as a diplomat in Beijing, Hong Kong and the United Nations.
He was taken into custody Monday night during one of his regular visits to Beijing, according to a spokesman for International Crisis Group, where Kovrig now works as North East Asia adviser based in Hong Kong.
“As I like to say, there’s no coincidence in China,” said Guy Saint-jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China. “The way they operate, I’m sure that they have a list of people that they could arrest on all kinds of flimsy charges. The government will have to react very forcefully to this because what I expect is we will witness a very rapid deterioration of the relationship.”
Saint-jacques said it’s clear the Chinese strategy is to put “as much political pressure as possible” on the Canadian government following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies CFO and the daughter of its founder, in Vancouver on Dec. 1 for possible extradition to the United States. Meng was arrested on charges that she helped the telecommunications giant contravene U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.
A judge in Vancouver granted her bail on $10-million surety Tuesday.
“It would be hard not to see this as tit for tat, especially given China’s warning to us of consequences, and because this is all-too characteristic of China’s preferred hardball tactics,” said David Mulroney, who was Canada’s ambassador to China from 2009 until 2012.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters Tuesday that he couldn’t make any comments about Kovrig’s status, but said consular officials have been in touch with Kovrig’s family to “offer every kind of support that we can.”
“We’re obviously aware of the situation and we are deeply concerned by the situation. The Canadian diplomatic officials have been in touch with their Chinese counterparts to explain how seriously Canadians view this and the deep concerns that we have,” he said, adding Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and her officials will take the “appropriate actions.” He said there was no “explicit” indication yet that this was linked to the Meng arrest.
Saint-jacques, who left the posting in Beijing just over two years ago, worked with Kovrig from 2014 to 2016. He said he suspects Kovrig will be charged with espionage over the detailed political research he completed for the Canadian embassy in Beijing, which included speaking with dissidents.
“Michael’s work was doing detailed political reporting. We created a special program at Global Affairs about 15 years ago to deepen it, and with that, the idea was to ask an officer to look at fewer files, give him a budget. Michael travelled quite a bit in China, he travelled to Xinjiang a number of times and did some great reporting,” said Saint-jacques. “But of course in China, the line between doing good political reporting and espionage can be very tiny.”
Kovrig is on leave without pay from Global Affairs Canada. According to his Linkedin profile he conducted “extensive field research” while at the Beijing embassy and served as “political lead” at Canada’s Hong Kong consulate for Trudeau’s visit there in September 2016. He has been working at the International Crisis Group, based in Hong Kong, for nearly two years.
The non-government organization’s recent reporting includes detailed accounts of China’s use of “political re-education camps” for Muslims in the Xinjiang province, where Kovrig was dispatched as part of his duties at the embassy. Kovrig tweeted the latest updates to the group’s “tracker” of such activities just a few days before his social media feeds went silent on Sunday.
“International Crisis Group is aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser, Michael Kovrig, has been detained in China,” a statement from the organization reads. “Since February 2017, Michael has been a fulltime expert for Crisis Group. We are doing everything possible to secure additional information on Michael’s whereabouts as well as his prompt and safe release.”
University of British Columbia professor Paul Evans said he can only hope the Canada-china relationship doesn’t devolve any further. “The level of fury on Chinese social media, some of the statements we’ve heard from Beijing makes it look like this is going to be something that’s going to have knockon effects for quite some time,” he said.