Birmingham strays into China-Canada crossfire

A Huawei executive arrested in Vancouver at Washington’s request has become our problem.

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg in a Dalian court this week. Picture: AFP

Just when it appeared Australia’s relations with Beijing had turned a corner, the Australian government has been drawn into escalating tensions over Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, made at the behest of the US, and China’s seemingly ­retaliatory actions against Canadian citizens.

Australia this week publicly backed criticism by Canada of the death penalty imposed by China on its citizen, drug smuggler Robert Lloyd Schellenberg.

The comments by acting Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham follow Australia’s banning last year of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei as a supplier of equipment for the next-generation 5G network.

The decision was reportedly made on the advice of the Five Eyes intelligence network, a grouping of Australia, the US, Britain, New Zealand and Canada. Some say the collaboration is increasingly setting us at odds with our largest trading partner.

However, far from being the odd man out on Huawei, Australia’s decision has in recent months been followed by other moves in New Zealand, Japan, the US, Britain and Europe. Questions revolve around whether equipment supplied by Huawei poses a security risk, in particular its potential for spying by the ­Chinese government. Huawei ­denies any such assertions.

Layered on top of this now is the increasingly tense fallout from Canada’s arrest on December 1 of Huawei chief financial officer Meng — for potential extradition to the US on charges of breaching sanctions with Iran — as she transited through Vancouver airport.

China has reacted angrily to the arrest of Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Wanzhou, a former engineer with the People’s Liberation Army, dramatically stepping up the pressure on Canada for her permanent release with an unprecedented series of detentions of Canadian citizens in China.

Since Meng’s arrest and release on bail on December 12 — she is due to return to court in Vancouver for an extradition hearing on February 6 — China has detained at least 13 Canadians, with two men, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, still in jail and facing serious accusations of endangering China’s national security.

Canada has revealed a further 11 of its citizens, including teacher Sarah McIver, have been detained in China since December 1. Most of them have been ­released.

But the stakes jumped dramatically this week when a court in the northeastern port city of Dalian handed out the death penalty to Schellenberg, who had been given a 15-year sentence in November for his involvement in a ring that was planning to smuggle drugs into Australia in 2014.

When the Canadian decided to appeal — a process that, unfortunately for him, happened after Meng’s arrest — Chinese prosecutors responded with a sudden retrial, resulting in the death ­penalty.

Having taken four years to sentence him to 15 years’ jail, the Chinese court system upgraded it to the death penalty within days, inviting foreign journalists to the sentencing.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attacked the decision, putting out a call to Canada’s friends and allies to support its position on the basis that such ­actions could easily happen to any of them.

“All countries around the world”, Trudeau said, should be concerned that Beijing was acting “arbitrarily” with its justice system. “It is of extreme concern to us as a government, as it should be to all our international friends and allies, that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply a death penalty.”

Trudeau’s words angered the Chinese, who are insisting the proper rule of law was applied to Schellenberg and the other detained Canadians.

Canada later updated its travel advisory for China, urging its citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws”.

Asked by ABC radio on Wednesday about his views on the sentence, Birmingham, whose day job is in the more diplomatic portfolio of trade, said he was “deeply concerned”, highlighting Australia’s opposition to the death penalty.

He went further, joining Canada in questioning how the case against Schellenberg was hand­led. “We expect, at a level of principle, that not only the death penalty should not be applied, but also, wherever people are in trouble, the rule of law ought to be applied fairly,” he said.

China’s Foreign Ministry, which is becoming known for its freely dispensed, sharp-tongued and often sarcastic comments about anyone who criticises Beijing, lashed back within hours, attacking Birmingham at its daily press conference.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she found it “odd” that Birmingham had spoken out against Schellenberg receiving the death penalty.

“Does it have anything to do with Australia?” she asked. Hua said Birmingham owed an explanation to the Australian people for his call for Schellenberg not to be given the death penalty, given that the Canadian was involved in a drug ring that planned to smuggle 222kg of methamphetamine from China’s port of Dalian to Australia in car tyres.

“Does he wish to see these drugs find their way into his country?” she asked.

Other reports this week have indicated that China has warned employees of its state-owned enterprises to be wary of travelling to countries in the Five Eyes grouping, including Australia.

While Australia was quietly sitting on the sidelines of the Meng case, the Schellenberg death penalty this week has made it clear to the broader US-linked Western community that it needs to support Canada, given the prospect of the same thing happening to its nationals.

China has chosen to refrain from attacking the US, which is the source of the action against Meng. In the middle of negotiations over a trade deal with Washington, its language towards the US has been far more measured — surprisingly so, given the barrage of vitriol that has been delivered by Donald Trump.

“Beijing has a very longstanding strategy of capitalising on divisions between and within nation-states to further its national interests,” University of Tasmania senior lecturer in Chinese studies Mark Harrison told The Australian this week.

“Given that Canada’s situation is an expression of China’s broader political trajectory under (President) Xi Jinping, it is in Australia’s interests to stand clearly with Canada at this time on the side of the rules-based international order, because Australia may well face similar circumstances in the future.”