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Beijing condemned Canada’s “crude interference” because the United States expressed support for the two Canadians detained in China due to the Huawei dispute.
On Sunday, supporters of two Canadian men imprisoned in China marked the 1,000th day of their “unfair” detention as the United States called for their release, while Beijing condemned Canada’s “crude interference” in its judicial sovereignty. .
In December 2018, shortly after Canada arrested an executive of the Chinese technology giant Huawei in response to an extradition request from the United States, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested in China.
Both were effectively held in solitary confinement and were subsequently convicted of espionage in a closed Chinese court-a process that Canada and dozens of allied nations call the equivalent of arbitrary detention.
In Ottawa, hundreds of supporters of the two held a parade on Sunday, trying to replicate the 7,000 steps Kovrig tries to walk in cramped cells every day to maintain physical and mental health.
“This is an extremely difficult milestone, but we want to commemorate this milestone in this way, partly to commemorate the strength and resilience shown by Michael and Michael Spavor,” Cumming Kai’s wife Vina Nagib Pull said.
The businessman Spavor and the former Canadian diplomat who worked for the International Crisis Group, Kovrig, were tried in March.
Spavor got a 11 years imprisonment Last month, shortly before the end of the extradition hearing on Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, there were national security allegations.
“We were worried for him, but we found strength from all the support we received,” said his brother Paul Spavor.
Kang Mingkai has not yet heard the verdict in his case.
On September 5, 2021, Kovrig’s wife Vina Nadjibulla (Vina Nadjibulla) talked with supporters before walking 5 kilometers in Ottawa to commemorate Spavor and Kovrig serving 1,000 days in a Chinese prison [Lars Hagberg/AFP]Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau and several opposition lawmakers and the U.S. ambassador to Ottawa attended the rally in Ottawa. Similar events are held in other parts of Canada and in cities around the world such as Brussels, New York, Seoul, and Washington, DC.
US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken issued a statement condemning China’s so-called “arbitrary detention.”
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with Canada and the international community and call on China to immediately and unconditionally release Michael Spavor and Michael Cumming Kai,” Brinken said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
He added: “Arbitrarily detaining individuals to exert influence on foreign governments is totally unacceptable.” “People should never be used as bargaining chips.”
In addition to accusing Spavor of passing sensitive information to Kovrig, the Chinese government has hardly announced the details of the case against the two men. It also denied that the detention of the two was directly connected with the arrest of Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, in Canada, but she was often mentioned in the case of Cumming Kai and Spavor.
It is expected that the next few months will decide whether to send Meng to the United States in order to face allegations of fraud related to the Chinese technology giant’s alleged violation of Iran’s sanctions.
The seemingly tit-for-tat arrests put the relationship between Ottawa and Beijing into a deep freeze. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the charges against the two Canadians “fabricated.”
The Chinese Embassy in Canada protested on Sunday that Ottawa had labeled the imprisonment of the two men as arbitrary detention.
“The Chinese side has repeatedly stated its solemn position on the Spavor and Cumming Kai case. The information disclosed by the relevant authorities shows that the evidence in the case is solid. China is a country under the rule of law. Anyone who violates the law in China will be punished by Chinese law. “The embassy said in a statement.
“Canada concocted a so-called statement against arbitrary detention in an attempt to unite and pressure China through’microphone diplomacy.’ This is doomed to failure,” it added.
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