Canada ends military exports, extradition treaty with Hong Kong

Canada is ending the export of sensitive military items to Hong Kong and suspending an extradition treaty with the territory after Beijing imposed its new national security law on the city.

The government is also updating its travel advisory for Hong Kong,

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Gatineau, Quebec, yesterday that Canada will consider additional measures in the days and weeks to come, including regarding immigration.

About 300,000 Canadians live in Hong Kong, he said. “We are extremely concerned about the situation in Hong Kong.”

Ottawa will be working with its allies, including members of the Five Eyes alliance, which is made up Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the United States, for “further responses” to Beijing’s moves in Hong Kong, he said.

Foreign Minister FrancoisPhilippe Champagne said yesterday that “sensitive goods” being exported to Hong Kong would now face the same restrictions as items going to mainland China.

“This legislation was enacted in a secretive process, without the participation of Hong Kong’s legislature, judiciary or people, and in violation of international obligations,” Champagne said in a statement.

The enforcement of the legislation this week in Hong Kong has provoked fresh protests and arrests, as well as international criticism.

Canada also joined 26 countries at the United Nation’s Human Rights Council on Tuesday to express “deep and growing concerns” regarding China’s treatment of the Uighur and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang and Beijing’s national security law targeting dissent in Hong Kong.

In response to the statement, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada accused Ottawa of “irresponsible remarks” and “a gross interference in China’s internal affairs”.

Canada in particular is facing diplomatic tensions with China.

Canada arrested Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou and she is facing possible extradition to the US, where she faces charges of fraud and other economic crimes.

Beijing is demanding the immediate end of extradition proceedings against Meng and has repeatedly warned Ottawa of “grave consequences” if Meng is extradited to the US where she could be jailed for up to 30 years if convicted.

Nine days after Meng was arrested in Vancouver on the US arrest warrant, Chinese officials arrested two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor.

Kovrig and Spavor, who have become known as the “Two Michaels” in Canada, have languished in jail without access to lawyers and with no consular visits since the beginning of the pandemic, while Meng is under house arrest in one of her luxury mansions in Vancouver.

Trudeau has repeatedly said that Chinese officials have linked the arrests of Kovrig and Spavor to Meng’s case, but he has steadfastly refused to short-circuit the extradition process and exchange the Huawei executive for the two Canadians.