Xi urged to free jailed Canadians
More than 100 China experts and former envoys to Beijing called on President Xi Jinping to release two Canadians who have been detained for six weeks, saying the cases undermine his efforts to build bridges to the rest of the world.
The group, including former U.S. ambassador Gary Locke, ex-hong Kong governor Christopher Patten and five former Canadian ambassadors to China, released an open letter to the Chinese leader Tuesday urging the two men’s freedom. The letter said that Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor had advocated exchanges that help build ties around the globe.
“We who share Kovrig and Spavor’s enthusiasm for building genuine, productive and lasting relationships must now be more cautious about travelling and working in China and engaging our Chinese counterparts,” the letter said. “That will lead to less dialogue and greater distrust, and undermine efforts to manage disagreements and identify common ground.”
The letter represented the latest effort to increase international pressure over the detentions, which came days after Canada arrested Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou as part of a U.s.-led extradition effort for alleged bank fraud related to violations of sanctions against Iran. She has denied wrongdoing.
China has deflected questions about whether the cases were launched in retaliation, saying only that the men are being held by the country’s spy agency on suspicion of activities endangering national security.
The incidents have fuelled diplomatic tensions between Ottawa and Beijing. Canada’s current ambassador to China, John Mccallum, said last week that the feud was damaging Beijing’s reputation and risked undermining its interests among the global business community.
Meanwhile, the Trudeau government said Monday that Huawei isn’t the only company that can build Canada’s next-generation wireless networks, as China muted its threat to retaliate if Canada bans the company.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains offered a sharp retort to China’s ambassador to Canada, who warned last week of repercussions if the federal government bars Huawei from supplying equipment for faster, more resilient communications systems.
A Chinese foreign-ministry spokeswoman attempted to play down the earlier remarks by Chinese Ambassador Lu Shaye. The envoy last Thursday said there would be “repercussions” if Canada bans Huawei from 5G work.
“To my understanding, he did not mean that China intends to interfere in the decision-making of the Canadian government,” Hua Chunying said in a Monday briefing in Beijing.