Two Canadians who disappeared into China’s state security apparatus in what was widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese telecom executive remain secluded in detention a year on, without access to lawyers or family.
Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been languishing in China’s opaque legal system since they were apprehended on Dec. 10 last year, just nine days after the arrest of Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟).
According to analysts, their fate is tied to what happens to Meng, who will have a hearing next month in a US extradition case that could potentially last years.
In the meantime, the trio face starkly different conditions.
Kovrig and Spavor have endured hours of interrogation and in the first six months of detention, they were forced to sleep with the lights on, according to people familiar with the matter.
However, Meng is reading and painting in a mansion in Vancouver, where she is allowed to travel under curfew, tracked by an ankle bracelet.
Diplomatic relations between Canada and China have hit rock bottom over the arrests, damaging trade between the countries. Beijing has repeatedly called for Meng’s release, while Ottawa says its citizens were arbitrarily detained.
“It’s a political case” and there are “very few signs of progress,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, the former Canadian ambassador to Beijing.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非), was arrested while changing planes in Vancouver on Dec. 1 last year.
Accused by the US of violating Iran sanctions, she has hired a team of lawyers to help her fight extradition in court.
“Right now, time seems to pass slowly,” Meng wrote in an open letter thanking supporters on the anniversary of her arrest.
Her mother and husband visit her, Ren told reporters, adding that he was in contact with his daughter, who is “suffering.”
Across the Pacific, Kovrig and Spavor have had no direct contact with anyone outside of consular visits that each last 30 minutes, sources said.
They face allegations of collecting state secrets, but neither has been formally charged, which suggests Chinese authorities may be “biding their time,” Saint-Jacques said.
Kovrig is being held in a cell with about 20 inmates in Beijing, while Spavor shares his with 18 people in Dandong, according to Saint-Jacques.
They are allowed outside for 15 minutes per day, he said.
In the first weeks following Kovrig’s arrest, even books were denied.
Spavor, who was based in northeast China, facilitated trips to North Korea, including past visits by US basketball legend Dennis Rodman. He even met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Kovrig’s employer, the International Crisis Group think tank, said that the former diplomat who was based in Hong Kong was regularly invited to the mainland by Chinese officials and could not have been viewed as hostile to China.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of