China makes up rules on the fly as it seeks to punish Canada

Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg.

Is it dangerous for Australians to travel to or live in China? No. But if an event in or involving Australia is deemed by Beijing to be seriously detrimental, then it could suddenly become so.

That’s the conclusion to be drawn from the seizure of two respectable Canadians in China, in response to the arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, the chief finance officer of tech giant Huawei, and the daughter of company founder, president and probably biggest shareholder, Ren Zhengfei.

Meng was last month granted bail, and is staying in one of her high-end Vancouver residences until the extradition hearing, concerning charges launched in the US courts of bank fraud relating to violation of US sanctions against Iran.

Canadians Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat now with the International Crisis Group, and Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur who promotes tourism in North Korea, are being held incommunicado, without access to lawyers, in rooms lit 24/7. They have been accused, though not yet formally charged, of the serious offence of “engaging in activities that endanger the national security of China”.

This is not the first time that innocent folk have found themselves caught up in great power games. Such victims have suffered grievously through the ages, and around the world.

But it’s not something that happens in countries administered according to the 21st century rule of law. In China, however, the ruling Communist Party is above the law, and ensures that its will is reflected through the courts. There’s rule by law, rather than rule of law.

Many in China who otherwise respect their governance wish that they had access to independent courts. But that’s not on the agenda.

Meng and her legal team will challenge the extradition request in court, and can appeal against any decision. The procedure will take place in a court open to the public and media.

In the past, Chinese leaders have used political prisoners such as the “democracy wall” human rights campaigner Wei Jingsheng as bargaining chips. Wei was freed to go to the US after 18 years’ jail, in part to help clinch Bill Clinton’s backing for Chinese accession to the World Trade Organisation.

Will this work for Beijing in 2019 sufficiently to press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene in the judicial process and halt the extradition proceedings against Meng?

One presumes not. Trudeau casts himself as something of a human rights champion, and thus an upholder of properly constituted justice proceedings. But Beijing clearly believes it’s in with a chance.

Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, said: “China is targeting Canada, and not the United States, because they see us as both weak and anxious for closer economic ties”, with Canada maybe viewed as a proxy for that preferred target. “China respects strength, not weakness,” Crowley said.

David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, wrote: “China behaves the way it does because it works. This is enabled by a chorus of advisers in the West who don’t seem particularly discomfited by how China treats people at home or abroad.”

A further escalation has come with the review of the 15-year sentence passed on Canadian Robert Schellenberg for planning to smuggle drugs to Australia. Following a hasty retrial he has been sentenced to death instead, in a show trial at which foreign journalists — usually locked out of courts — were invited to attend.

Mo Shaoping, principal of the law firm that represented Schellenberg, says it originally took four years to sentence him “because the court thought the evidence insufficient, and sought instructions all the way up to the Supreme People’s Court”. The rapidity of the recent re-sentencing — just a few days — is, he says, unprecedented.

The risk-laden boldness of China’s moves underline how important to the party-state is Huawei, one of the country’s most successful truly global corporations. Ren said: “I love my country. I support the Communist Party,” which naturally monitors and reviews Huawei’s direction via its party branch inside the company.

In only Ren’s third ever encounter with international reporters — following not only his daughter’s charges but the arrest for spying of Huawei’s sales director in Poland — he added this week: “I don’t see a close connection between my personal beliefs and the business of Huawei.”

Others may disagree. It’s next to impossible to succeed at the top level in China in business or any other activity unless one’s beliefs are appropriately aligned. Even the quirky and brilliant Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, is a party member. And falling out with party officials — central or provincial — can lead to court and jail, as three Australians now back in Sydney — Matthew Ng, Charlotte Chou and Stern Hu — can attest.

The rest of the world is watching how Canada tackles this challenge. Naturally, negotiations towards a free-trade agreement with China are suspended until it’s resolved.

In the meantime, a new Canadian travel advisory urges “a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws” — to which merely owning a Canadian passport now seems to make one especially vulnerable.