Two Canadians imprisoned in China since 2018 charged with spying

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Michael Kovrig (left) and Michael Spavor (right) are seen in this composite image.

Two Canadians who have been detained in China for a year and a half have formally been charged with spying.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been imprisoned since Dec. 10, 2018.

Prosecutors announced Friday that Kovrig and Spavor had been charged. Kovrig was charged in Beijing on suspicion of spying for state secrets and intelligence. Spavor was charged in Dandong city near the North Korean border on suspicion of spying for foreign entity and illegally providing state secrets.

Canadians have been denied visits since Jan. 2019.

They were both arrested days after Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou was taken into custody at Vancouver International Airport.

Their detention is widely understood as an attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng, chief financial officer at Chinese tech giant Huawei. The daughter of Huawei’s founder was arrested Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities who want her on fraud charges.

Extradition hearings are ongoing in B.C. Supreme Court after a judge rejected the first set of arguments from Meng’s lawyers late last month.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa denounced that decision by Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes and called once more for Meng’s immediate release.

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne responded in turn by calling for the release of the two “arbitrarily detained” Canadian men.

Kovrig is an ex-diplomat who was working for the International Crisis Group and Spavor is an entrepreneur who did business in North Korea.

China has denied any link between Meng’s case and the lengthy detention of the two Canadian men, but outside experts see them as linked. Meng has been released on bail while her extradition case proceeds in court.

China has also sentenced two other Canadians to death and suspended imports of Canadian canola, while saying those moves were also unrelated to Meng’s case.

Relations between Canada and China are at their lowest point since the Chinese military’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Source: The Canadian Press, The Associated Press, 19 June 2020.

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