Canadian ex-diplomat held in China
Beijing, China - Beijing said on Wednesday a detained former Canadian diplomat may have violated Chinese laws if he carried out work in the country because his employer is not legally registered in China.
Michael Kovrig, a senior advisor at the International Crisis Group (ICG) thinktank, was detained by Chinese state security in Beijing on Monday night, according to ICG.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had ‘no information to offer’ about the detention.
But he added that ICG was not registered in China.
‘If it’s not registered and its employees in China are engaged in activities, it is already in violation’ of a Chinese law on foreign non-governmental organisa- tions, Lu said.
Kovrig was detained nine days after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, at the behest of the United States.
On Tuesday, China warned that it would not tolerate any ‘bullying’ of its citizens abroad and has demanded Meng’s release.
A former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, Guy Saint-Jacques, said Kovrig’s detention is likely related to Canada’s arrest of Meng.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has said Ottawa was ‘deeply concerned’ by the detention of one of its citizens. He added that there was no ‘explicit indication’ that the former diplomat’s detention was linked to Meng’s arrest.
“We are aware of the situation of a Canadian detained in China. We have been in direct contact with the Chinese,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, adding that Ottawa was taking his arrest ‘very seriously’.
The ICG earlier said it was aware of reports of the detention of its employee Kovrig, a Chinese-speaking expert who served as a Canadian diplomat in Beijing, Hong Kong and at the United Nations.‘We are doing everything possible to secure additional information on Michael’s whereabouts as well as his prompt and safe release’, the thinktank said in a statement.
The US reacted quickly, calling on Beijing to abide by its commitments to human rights. “We urge China to end all forms of arbitrary detentions and to respect the protections and freedom of all individuals under China’s international human rights and consular commitments,” deputy State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said.