China flays Canada on ‘arbitrary detention’

CHINA has expressed its firm opposition to the socalled Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention issued by Canada and some other countries on February 15, and lodged stern representations with the Canadian side, a foreign ministry spokesperson said yesterday.

“If Canada really opposes ‘arbitrary detention,’ it should act on its words and immediately release Meng Wanzhou and allow her to return to China safe and sound,” spokesperson Hua Chunying said yesterday.

Canada gathered a number of countries to issue the socalled Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention and deliberately arranged relevant personnel to accuse China of the “arbitrary detention” of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. This is a thief shouting “stop thief,” confusing right from wrong, Hua said.

Hua pointed out that Meng Wanzhou has been arbitrarily detained by Canada for two years despite violating no Canadian laws, which clearly shows that Canada has arbitrarily arrested and detained foreign citizens.

Acting as US accomplice

“The so-called declaration is more like Canada’s confession acknowledging its mistakes in the Meng Wanzhou case,” she said, adding that Canada portrayed itself as upholding the rule of law while acting as an accomplice of the United States in arbitrarily detaining Chinese citizens, which is “despicable and hypocritical.”

Hua also refuted Canada’s claims that it was supported by relevant countries, saying that some countries were coaxed by Canada and have since withdrawn from the joint declaration, and some listed in the joint declaration said they were not informed about their inclusion.

As to the cases of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, they were prosecuted for suspected crimes undermining China’s national security. China’s judicial organs are handling the cases independently in accordance with the law, and the lawful rights of the two men have been guaranteed, she said.

Noting that the incident of Meng Wanzhou and the cases of the two Canadian citizens are completely different and bunching them together is an ill-intentioned distortion of the facts, Hua said. Canada’s attempt at “microphone diplomacy” is doomed to fail.

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MORE than 4,600 ancient cultural relics including over 3,500 ancient tombs were discovered during an expansion project of the Xianyang International Airport in Xi’an, according to the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.

Hundreds of staff worked even during the Spring Festival holiday to excavate the site and ensure smooth progress of the third phase of the airport’s expansion.

The third-phase expansion of Xianyang airport in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province is the largest civil aviation project in northwest China.

The project is part of the efforts to build an international aviation hub in Xi’an.

In 2010, during the second phase of the airport expansion project, researchers from the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology conducted excavation in the construction area and found more than 60 tombs and more than 1,300 cultural relics.

In 2011, six ancient tombs and more than 40 cultural relics were discovered during the construction of Xi’an Metro Line 2 in the former Chinese capital.

A total of 179 archaeological projects were carried out in Shaanxi Province in 2020.

Researchers have covered about 11.8 million square meters of archaeological exploration.

They have discovered 3,956 ancient tombs and 105,800 square meters of ancient sites.