China arrests a 2nd Canadian, escalating diplomatic feud

Accusing the two men of national security crimes — as yet unspecified — signaled a serious escalation of the diplomatic crisis that began when Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, at the request of American prosecutors on charges of bank fraud related to violating sanctions against trade with Iran.

The second case involves Michael Spavor, a writer and entrepreneur who operates a cultural organization that promotes trips into North Korea.

Spavor gained prominence for helping arrange the visits to North Korea by Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star. During one of those visits, Spavor met the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and in appearances in Beijing he would fondly speak about their friendship, though the extent of it was not clear.

He posted notes on Twitter and Facebook on Sunday that he planned to travel to South Korea on Monday for several days of consulting work. But he did not appear, as planned, at a lecture organized there by the Royal Asiatic Society, according to members of the group.

Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, disclosed the second case, and during a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday she urged China to let the legal process unfold. She also warned the administration of President Donald Trump, too, not to further politicize what started as a legal matter involving accusations that Huawei had committed bank fraud.

Spavor was detained on Monday by state security officials in Liaoning, the province along the border with North Korea where he has lived, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lu Kang, said on Thursday. That same evening officials in Beijing arrested Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat who since last year had worked for the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental research organization that seeks to defuse international conflicts.

On Wednesday, the same spokesman suggested that Kovrig worked for an organization that had not been legally registered under a new law, but the latest statements suggested he faced far more serious criminal charges, complicating efforts to win his release, or Spavor’s.

Freeland said the Canadian government was deeply concerned about Kovrig, in particular, who had previously worked among the country’s diplomatic corps.

“The fact that he is an employee of my department means a lot of us know him and that adds another layer of concern,” she said. “We care and we work and fight hard for every Canadian detained abroad.”

Although she did not identify him by name, Freeland said Spavor had reached out to Canadian officials “because he was being asked questions by Chinese authorities.”

“We have not been able to make contact since he raised those concerns,” she said.

The opacity surrounding the two cases sharply contrasted with the public proceedings that unfolded over three days in a Vancouver courtroom after the arrest of Meng. After three days of court hearings, where she was represented by lawyers, Meng was released on bail Tuesday evening, pending further deliberations on whether she should be extradited to the United States.

“I am in Vancouver and back to my family,” she wrote on Wednesday afternoon Beijing time in a post on Weibo, China’s social media platform. “I am proud of Huawei and I am proud of my motherland.”

Hugh Pope, the director for communications and outreach for the International Crisis Group, said the organization was surprised and concerned by the accusations against Kovrig, who since February 2017 worked for the organization from Hong Kong.

“Michael regularly visits Beijing to meet officials, to attend conferences at the invitation of Chinese organizations, and on personal visits,” Pope wrote in a note from Brussels. “He frequently appears on Chinese television and other media to comment on regional issues.”

Lu, at Thursday’s foreign ministry briefing, said that authorities had notified Canada of both arrests and that “the legitimate rights and interests of the two Canadians are safeguarded now.”

Freeland, however, indicated that Canada was still trying to learn the fate of the two, suggesting neither had been visited by Canadian diplomats. Pope also said the organization had not been able to learn about Kovrig’s whereabouts or the reasons for his arrest.

Neither Lu nor other officials offered much pretense that the arrests were not linked to Meng’s fate in Vancouver. Since she was detained on a layover in Vancouver, British Columbia, officials and the state news media had explicitly warned Canada of retaliatory steps if it did not release Meng immediately.

Her release on bail appeared to have done little so far to defuse the tensions.

Freeland said that Chinese officials, apparently in diplomatic contacts with their counterparts, had not framed Kovrig’s arrest as a “reprisal.”

“It is important to stress that,” she said, adding that relations between Canada and China were important for Canada.

Freeland also appeared to take Trump to task for his suggestion, in an interview with Reuters, that he would willingly intervene in Meng’s case if it would help resolve the trade disputes that have soured relations over the last year.

“Our extradition partners should not seek to politicize the extradition process or use it for ends other than the pursuit of justice,” she said. She said she had spoken to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the case earlier in the week, and had stressed that Canada was a “rule of law country.”

She added that it was up to Meng’s lawyers whether they decided to choose to raise the comments as part of their effort to block extradition. Then it would be up to the Canadian judicial process to weigh the significance of Meng’s lawyers’ defense.

Citing comments by Canada’s Ministry of Justice, she said that if the Canadian courts decided that the legal threshold for extradition was met, then the Canadian attorney general would make the decision on whether Canada should proceed.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

China arrests a 2nd Canadian, escalating diplomatic feud

BEIJING — China intensified its punitive campaign against Canada over the arrest of a top Chinese technology executive by arresting a second Canadian working here and announcing on Thursday that both men faced charges of undermining China’s national security.

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