China has detained a Canadian man on suspicion of stealing and prying into state secrets, and released his wife, also a Canadian, from custody on bail after holding the couple without charge for months, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The decision to detain Kevin Garratt, who ran a Christian coffee shop with his wife, paves the way for his formal arrest and possible prosecution in a case that has strained ties between Canada and China.
Beijing is widening a crackdown on foreign Christian groups along its sensitive border with North Korea.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said Garratt had been formally detained on suspicion of the theft, citing the National Security Agency of Dandong, in Liaoning Province, where the Garratts had lived for years.
“The relevant Chinese authorities are dealing with the case in accordance with the law, and maintaining the legal rights and interests of both people in accordance with the law,” Hong told a regular news briefing.
Julia Garratt was released, but barred from leaving China for one year, the family said in a statement.
Kevin Garratt has been moved to a “more formal detention center at an unknown location,” the family added.
No formal charges had been filed and no evidence of misconduct was given to the family or their lawyer, it said.
“The family continues to call upon the governments of Canada and the People’s Republic of China to resolve this matter involving diplomatic means with a sense of urgency,” the couple’s lawyer, James Zimmerman, said in a statement.
China’s state secrets law is notoriously broad, covering everything from industry data to the exact birth dates of state leaders. Information can also be labeled a state secret retroactively. In severe cases, the theft of state secrets is punishable with life in prison or the death penalty.
Kevin and Julia Garratt were first detained in August last year for suspected theft of military and intelligence information and for threatening national security.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in November he had raised concerns about the case in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The Canadian embassy in Beijing referred questions to Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. The department could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Garratts, from Vancouver, have lived in China since 1984 and since 2008 ran a popular coffee shop in Dandong and conducted Christian aid work for North Koreans. They are in their mid-fifties.
The couple worked with North Star Aid, whose Web site said the British Columbia-registered charity seeks to help North Koreans primarily through providing humanitarian aid.
Shortly after they were detained, one of their sons, Simeon Garratt, told reporters he knew of “no possible scenario I can think of that makes it plausible” that his parents would be stealing state secrets about military and national defense research.
He said his parents made no secret of their faith but did not flaunt it in China, where proselytizing is against the law.
The accusations against the couple came about a week after Canada accused a China-sponsored hacker of infiltrating Canada’s National Research Council, the country’s top research and development organization.
Additional reporting by AP
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was