Canadian ex-diplomat detained in China, official confirms

Source:Washington Post; HangzhouExpat

A former Canadian diplomat has been detained while visiting Beijing amid a dispute between the two counties over Canada’s arrest of a Chinese executive at the request of the United States.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale on Tuesday confirmed the detention and said Canada is very concerned.

Michael Kovrig, who previously worked as a diplomat in Beijing, Hong Kong and the United Nations, was taken into custody Monday night during one of his regular visits to Beijing, said the International Crisis Group, for which Kovrig now works as North East Asia adviser based in Hong Kong.

The detention came after China warned Canada of consequences for its recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver’s airport. A Canadian judge granted Meng bail Tuesday while she awaits possible extradition to the U.S.

“We’re deeply concerned,” Goodale said in response to a question about Kovrig. “A Canadian is obviously in difficulty in China ... We are sparing no effort to do everything we possibly can to look after his safety.”

Goodale said there was no explicit indication at this point that it was related to the Meng arrest.

However, Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he had no doubt Kovrig was detained in relation to the arrest of the Huawei executive.

“In China there is no coincidence,” he said. “Unfortunately Canada is caught in the middle of this dispute between the U.S and China. Because China cannot kick the U.S. they turn to the next target.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada’s government has contacted Chinese officials about the detention. “We are engaged with the file (case), which we take very seriously,” he said.

The International Crisis Group, a non-governmental organization based in Brussels, said in a statement that it was doing everything possible to obtain additional information about Kovrig’s whereabouts and that it would work to ensure his prompt release.

The organization said Kovrig has been one of its full-time experts since February 2017. Its website says Kovrig previously worked as a Canadian diplomat in Beijing and Hong Kong and at the United Nations.

Saint-Jacques, the former ambassador, said Kovrig was on leave from the embassy. He said Kovrig did deep political work when he was working for the embassy. That work would include travel and interviews with dissidents, he said.

“In China there’s a very line between espionage and political reporting,” he said.

Saint-Jacques said the department created a program 15 years ago so it would get more in-depth analysis. He noted that Kovrig was a former journalist whose embassy reports were well read in Ottawa.

Kovrig wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he had served as the political lead on a visit Trudeau made to Hong Kong in September 2016. He worked in Canada’s consulate-general in Hong Kong at the time.

Former Canadian Liberal Party leader Bob Rae said it was clear why Kovrig had been detained.

“It’s called repression and retaliation,” Rae tweeted.

Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Trudeau, said Chinese “retaliation against Canadian interests or Canadians would be unacceptable and pointless.”

“It would have zero impact on judicial proceedings in Canada,” Paris tweeted. “Beijing should already know this from previous experience. Let cooler heads prevail.”

Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to China, said Canada needs to take dramatic action.

“I’d be summoning the entire Canadian consular Corp in China home for training. If that means they can’t issue visas in the meantime, certainly the Chinese would understand. These are special times,” he tweeted.

Hu Xijin, editor in chief of China’s state-run newspaper Global Times, wrote on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo that there isn’t any evidence Kovrig’s detention was retaliation for Meng’s arrest. But he added that the current situation was “highly sensitive” because of a “American-Canadian conspiracy” to arrest Meng.

“If people in the rest of the world make this association, it’s because Meng Wanzhou’s arrest was really way over the line. Naturally, people would think that China would take revenge,” Hu said.

Two Canadians probed on suspicion of harming China's state security: report

Two Canadians are under investigation by China's state security authorities on suspicion of harming the country's national security, according to media reports.

Michael Spavor was put under investigation by the Dandong branch of state security bureau in Liaoning Province on December 10, the official news portal of Central Politics and Law Commission of the Communist Party of China (Chinapeace.gov.cn) reported on Thursday.

Spavor was probed on suspicion of "engaging in activities that harm China's national security," the report said.

The investigation is continuing, it said, without elaborating.

Spavor, who is based in China, runs the Paektu Cultural Exchange, an organization that "facilitates business, tourism and sport trips" to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and famously helped former NBA star Dennis Rodman visit the country, according to AFP in an earlier report.

"We are aware that a Canadian citizen, Mr Michael Spavor, is presently missing in China," Canadian foreign ministry spokesman Guillaume Berube told AFP in an email earlier.

Former diplomat

Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig is being investigated by the Beijing state security bureau, The Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

"Kovrig was on December 10 put under investigation on suspicion of engaging in activities that harm China's state security," according to the report.

The investigation is continuing, the report said, without elaborating.

Kovrig worked with Canada's foreign affairs ministry between 2010 and 2016. Since 2017, he has been working as a senior adviser with International Crisis Group, a think-tank focused on conflict resolution, according to China Global Television Network, the English-language arm of China's state broadcaster CCTV.

Lu Kang, spokesman with China’s Foreign Ministry, said earlier that ICG was not legally registered in China and its employees would be in violation of the law if they engaged in activities in the country.

Source: Washington Post; Shine; HangzhouExpat

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/former-canadian-diplomat-reportedly-arrested-in-china/; https://www.shine.cn/news/nation/1812136598/

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