China holds Canadian worker
Former diplomat detained for questioning days after the arrest in Canada of a Huawei executive at US request
Chinese authorities are questioning former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was detained days after the arrest in Canada of a Chinese businesswoman, on suspicion of engaging in activities that harmed China’s national security.
The state-run Beijing News said on Wednesday that Kovrig, who works for the International Crisis Group, had become the subject of an investigation by the Beijing State Security Bureau.
He was detained after police in Canada arrested the CFO of China’s Huawei Technologies on December 1 at the request of US authorities, infuriating Beijing.
The Canadian government has said it sees no explicit link to the Huawei case.
Kovrig was on December 10 “investigated in accordance with the law by the Beijing State Security Bureau on suspicion of engaging in activities that harm China’s state security”, the newspaper said.
Accusations of harming state security could cover a wide range of suspected crimes.
The International Crisis Group, a think-tank focused on conflict resolution, said in an earlier statement Kovrig was detained by state security officials in Beijing on Monday night.
Diplomats in China said that the apparent involvement of the secretive state security ministry, which engages in domestic counter-espionage operations, among other things, suggests the government could be looking at levelling spying accusations.
International Crisis Group president and CEO Robert Malley said the group does not engage in such activity.
“I don’t want to speculate as to what’s behind it, but I am prepared to be categorical about what’s not behind it, and what’s not behind it is any illegal activity or endangering of Chinese national security,” Malley said, before the state media report came out. “Everything we do is transparent, it’s on our website. We don’t engage in secretive work, in confidential work.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said the International Crisis Group is not registered in China as a nongovernment organisation and Kovrig could have broken Chinese law.
“If they are not registered and their workers are in China undertaking activities, then that’s already outside of, and breaking, the law, revised just last year [2017], on the management of overseas nongovernmental organisations operating in China,” Lu said.
The ministry of public security, which has oversight over foreign NGOs, did not respond to a request for comment.
The foreign NGO law, which took effect in January, is part of a raft of new national security measures introduced under President Xi Jinping.
“All foreigners that come to China, so long as they respect the law, have nothing to worry about,” Lu said.
William Nee, China researcher for Amnesty International’s East Asia regional office in Hong Kong, said Kovrig’s detention is alarming, especially as it appears to be the first time that the law has been used to detain a foreign NGO worker.