R Krishna Das
It was a long wait for the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, literally, to get his two nationals released from China and make its official announcement.
Former Canadian diplomat Michael Spavor and businessman Michael Kovrig were detained by Chinese officials just days after chief financial officer of Huawei Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 on charges of violating U.S. sanctions. She was detained by the Canada police on the request of U.S. authorities.
The otherwise purely legal case of Meng was given a diplomatic and political twist by China that resorted to “unfair” tactics for her release.
Besides retaliatory trade measures, Beijing locked two innocents up to bargain for the privileged figure of the People’s Republic. For President Xi Jinping, it became a prestige issue not only to release the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei but also a corporate icon.
Nine days after her arrest, Chinese authorities took Kovrig from a street in Beijing. Spavor was seized on the same day in Dandong, a Chinese city opposite North Korea, a country where he long did business.
It was a straight hostage situation of the two Canadians, who stood trial on spying charges. As part of the pressure tactics, Spavor was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison while the verdict of the former diplomat was kept in waiting so that pressure could not be released.
Citing the COVID protocols, the Canadian citizens were not given legal assistance, Meng was able to present her case in all judicial forums. While Meng was allowed to live in ankle-braceleted luxurious style in her Vancouver, the two Canadians were confined to prison under much harsher conditions.
Both suffered the kind of cruel detention. “These two men have gone through an unbelievably difficult ordeal,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference Friday night. It was a deep understatement.
The strategy worked as the Biden administration in the U.S. struck a deal and clearly the quid pro quo was a return for the two Canadian men detained in the wake of Meng’s arrest. The speed at which Beijing returned two Canadians soon after Meng boarded the Chinese jet on Friday endorsed it.
Beijing however had set a wrong precedent, using detained foreign citizens as bargaining chips. Chinese news media tried to play down the release of Spavor and Kovrig to leave the impression that Beijing gave nothing away for her return.
The deal also stands as a warning to leaders in other countries that the Chinese government can use the detention diplomacy to browbeat smaller, less powerful countries. China can never be trusted.
And this was the reason Trudeau waited for the special aircraft carrying Kovrig and Spavor to first leave the Chinese air space before making the official announcement of their release. He was personally present at the airport to receive them.
