Canadian Ambassador to Beijing John McCallum on Friday met with detained former diplomat Michael Kovrig for the first time since Kovrig was arrested in China.
Kovrig and a second Canadian, Michael Spavor, were taken into custody earlier in the week after a top Chinese tech executive was arrested in Vancouver at the request of the US.
The Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that McCallum was granted consular access to Kovrig and was pressing for access to Spavor.
Speaking to the Canadian Press, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that access would be granted “shortly.”
“We are being absolutely clear on standing up for our citizens who have been detained, trying to figure out why, trying to work with China to demonstrate that this not acceptable,” Trudeau told Citytv in Toronto.
Meanwhile in Washington, Canada’s foreign and defense ministers held talks with their US counterparts over the arrests.
The Canadians were arrested for what China has said is suspicion of “harm to national security,” a phrase often used by Beijing when alleging espionage.
However, the detentions are widely believed to be retaliation for Canada’s arrest on Dec. 1 of Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟), the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
Meng was arrested while changing planes in Vancouver, outraging China and sparking a diplomatic standoff between the North American allies and Beijing.
“This is one of the situations you get in when the two largest economies in the world, China and the United States, start picking a fight with each other,” Trudeau said. “The escalating trade war between them is going to have all sorts of unintended consequences for Canada, potentially the entire global economy. We’re very worried about that.”
The US has accused Meng of lying to bankers about the use of a covert subsidiary to sell to Iran in breach of sanctions. If convicted, she faces more than 30 years in prison.
On Tuesday, a Canadian judge ordered Meng’s release on C$10 million (US$7.5 million) bail, pending a US extradition hearing.
Meanwhile, Canadian Minister of Tourism Melanie Joly shelved a trip to China next week to promote tourism.
Since Beijing approved Canada as a tourist destination for its citizens in 2010, the number of Chinese visiting Canada has risen by 20 percent per year to almost 700,000 last year.
Ottawa had hoped to double the figure by 2021.
It opened seven visa application offices in China this year to facilitate the processing of travel documents, but those targets are now in doubt amid a public backlash in China.
Kovrig, who works for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, was being investigated by the Chinese Bureau of State Security, while the agency’s office in Liaoning Province was handling the probe into Spavor.
Spavor, a China-based business consultant who facilitates trips to North Korea, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and arranged some of retired NBA star Dennis Rodman’s trips to the country.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that ICG was not registered in China and its employees would be “in violation” of the law if they engage in activities in the country.
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