China concludes espionage trial of Canadian behind closed doors
DANDONG, China — The trial of Canadian citizen Michael Spavor, detained by China since late 2018 on suspicion of espionage, ended on Friday after closed-court hearing of around two hours, in a case embroiled in a wider diplomatic spat between Washington and Beijing.
Spavor and his lawyer appeared for the hearing and the court will later set a date to issue a verdict, the Dandong Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement on its website.
Chinese courts have a conviction rate of over 99 per cent.
The 45-year-old Canadian businessman was not seen outside the court and there was no word on his condition.
China arrested Spavor and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig in December 2018, soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, on a U.S. warrant.
Beijing insists the detentions are not linked to the arrest of Meng, who remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights extradition to the United States.
Kovrig, a former diplomat, is due to go on trial on Monday in Beijing.
Police set up a cordon on Friday morning outside the court, which sits along the Yalu River opposite North Korea, the isolated country that Spavor regularly visited in his business career.
Officials from the Canadian embassy and other nations including United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Australia, Sweden and Germany were present outside the court as they sought access to the hearing. They were not allowed to enter.
“We are disappointed in the lack of access and the lack of transparency,” Jim Nickel, charge d’affaires at the Canadian embassy in China, told reporters ahead of the hearing.
“The reason that has been given is it’s a so-called national security case and their belief is that the domestic law overrides international law, which in fact is not the case. China does have international obligations to allow consular access,” he said.
Nickel said Canadian officials last saw Spavor on Feb. 3 and had made multiple requests to see him ahead of the trial, but those requests were denied.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday that cases involving state secrets are not open to the public.
“The competent Chinese authorities will continue, in light of the epidemic situation, to handle consular visits according to law,” he said during a daily media briefing in Beijing.
TRIAL COINCIDES WITH U.S.-CHINA TALKS
Observers have said the likely convictions of the two men could ultimately facilitate a diplomatic agreement whereby they are released and sent back to Canada.
The trial dates were announced by Canada just as the United States and China were preparing to hold high-level in-person talks in Alaska, the first since U.S. President Joe Biden took office, which proved on Thursday to be contentious.
China on Thursday denied a link to those talks.
Guy Saint-jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, said the timing was clearly designed to coincide with the talks, as China wants to pressure the Biden administration to arrange for Meng’s release.