China is to soon begin trials for two Canadians, who were arrested two years ago in apparent retaliation for Canada’s detention of a senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies (華為), China’s state-run Global Times reported late on Thursday.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor “will soon be tried” after they were charged with “crimes undermining China’s national security” in June 2020, the newspaper said.
Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Spavor, an entrepreneur, were arrested in December 2018, days after Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) was stopped at Vancouver International Airport. The US wants her extradited to face fraud charges.
Photo: AP
China has revealed few details of the charges against the two, and Canadian diplomats, allowed occasional visits, have said little other than to call for them to be released.
Kovrig was “accused of having used an ordinary passport and business visa to enter China to steal sensitive information and intelligence through contacts in China since 2017, while Spavor was accused of being a key source of intelligence for Kovrig,” the Global Times said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said he had no additional details, but that China had “fully protected all the legal rights of the people concerned,” including allowing Canadian diplomats to visit the two.
Meng, who remains free on bail in Vancouver, is also the daughter of the founder of Huawei, which China’s government has promoted as one of its national champions. Her arrest enraged Beijing, which sees the US case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise, and it sent China-Canada relations into a tailspin.
China has also retaliated by placing restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola oil seed, and handed death sentences to four Canadians convicted of drug smuggling.
Beijing has repeatedly demanded Meng’s immediate, unconditional release, as her case winds its way through the Canadian legal system.
The Global Times’ report gave no details of the timing or location of the proceedings again Kovrig and Spavor and cited a “source close to the matter,” whom it did not identify.
Hearings have been delayed because of COVID-19 prevention measures, but the court would “push forward the trial soon,” the newspaper said.
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