Many observers have been scratching their heads at Beijing’s increasingly frenzied “wolf warrior” diplomacy, with Chinese diplomats competing with one another to direct the most outlandish abuse possible on their host nations. If this were not damaging enough to its reputation in a post-COVID-19 world, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) continues to hone another tool with which to bludgeon unruly foreigners: hostage diplomacy.
In December 2018, two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, were detained by Chinese authorities, just days after Huawei Technologies Co chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on a US warrant for fraud and contravening sanctions against Iran. Despite the suspicious timing, Beijing said that the incidents were entirely unrelated.
Now, after languishing without charges in China’s “black prison” system for 18 months, on Friday last week, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that it had charged Kovrig and Spavor with espionage, a crime punishable with life imprisonment.
Perhaps it is merely a quirk of fate, but just a few weeks prior to the announcement, a Canadian judge on May 27 ruled that proceedings to extradite Meng to the US could go ahead.
In addition, the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court on June 10 announced that Karm Gilespie, an Australian detained on drug charges for seven years, had been sentenced to death.
Of course, it is purely a coincidence that China and Australia are currently locked in an increasingly bitter diplomatic standoff, Canberra having the temerity to call for an international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hostage diplomacy is a familiar Chinese tactic toward Taiwan. The depressing roll call of Taiwanese who have dissapeared in the past few years into the vortex of the “black prison” system includes human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) in 2017, Southern Taiwan Union of Cross-strait Relations Associations chair Tsai Chin-shu (蔡金樹) in 2018 and Morrison Lee (李孟居), a Hsinchu County resident who went missing in Shenzhen last year.
Reacting to the espionage charges against Kovrig and Spavor, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not mince his words.
At a daily briefing on Monday, Trudeau said: “This arbitrary detention of Canadian citizens is unacceptable and deeply concerning, not just to Canadians, but to people around the world who see China using arbitrary detentions as a means to political ends ... It has been obvious from the beginning that this was a political decision made by the Chinese government, and we deplore it and have from the very beginning.”
A prisoner swap that would entail exchanging Meng for Kovrig and Spavor has been mooted by several prominent members of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, including former Canadian deputy prime minister John Manley.
Trudeau dismissed the idea, pointing out that in Canada, the rule of law is sacrosanct. While the terrible plight of individuals wrongfully incarcerated in China is appalling, a prisoner swap would give Beijing exactly what it wants, and would encourage Xi and his cronies to engage in yet more kidnapping of foreign nationals.
Democratic nations must stand firmly together against Beijing’s crude hostage diplomacy, safe in the knowledge that such tactics would ultimately be self-defeating for China. How many foreign companies and individuals are willing to continue investing and doing business in a country where, at any moment, they might be bundled into the back of a van or have their door kicked down in the middle of the night?
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of