Gareth Evans signs open letter to Xi Jinping to free detained Canadians

Gareth Evans is among 140 former diplomats and academics signing an open letter to Xi Jinping over jailed Canadians.

Former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans. Picture: AAP.

Former Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans, former Australian Ambassador to China, Ric Smith and eight Australian academics are among more than 140 former diplomats and academics who have signed an open letter to China’s president Xi Jinping, calling on China to release two jailed Canadians.

The letter, which is part of a global campaign for the release of the two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, warns that their continued detention will lead to “less dialogue and greater distrust” in dealing with China.

It warns that academics, former diplomats and workers for not for profit organisations wanting to engage with China were now “more cautious about travelling and working in China and engaging our Chinese counterparts.”

Mr Kovrig was arrested in China while working for the European based International Crisis Group whose official mission is “to build a more peaceful world.”

Michael Kovrig was arrested in China while working for the European based International Crisis Group. Picture: AP.

Now based in Melbourne, Gareth Evans is president emeritus of the group.

Mr Kovrig and Mr Spavor were arrested separately in China on December 10, days after Canadian police arrested Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, on December 1 as she transited through Vancouver airport.

Now out on bail, Ms Meng is set to return to court in Vancouver on February 6 to face a possible extradition hearing to the US to face charges of violating US sanctions on doing business with Iran.

While China has insisted that the arrests have nothing to do with Ms Meng’s arrest, Canada has been conducting a global campaign for their release and issued a travel warning for its citizens to be cautious of being subject to the “arbitrary” enforcement of local law when in China.

Michael Spavor was arrested on December 10. Picture: AFP.

Tensions between Canada and China escalated last week when it was announced that Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg would be sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle drugs from China to Australia in 2014.

Mr Schellenberg was sentenced in November last year to 15 years jail for drug smuggling.

Appealing against the sentence, an action which just happened to occur after Ms Meng’s arrest, Chinese prosecutors decided to retry his case, handing out the death penalty last week in a move which has created growing alarm around the world including criticism by Australia’s acting Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham.

Canada has also revealed that at least another 11 Canadian citizens have been detained in China since Ms Meng’s arrest, including one schoolteacher, although they all appear to have been released.

The open letter has been signed by Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong and former European Union commissioner who is now Chancellor of Oxford University, David Mulroney, and five other former Canadian ambassador to China, two former American ambassadors to China and former Ambassadors to China from Sweden and Mexico.

Other Australians signing the letter include Ric Smith, former Australian ambassador to China and Indonesia and the former secretary of the Department of Defence, John Garnaut, former senior adviser to Malcolm Turnbull, Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute, Michael Wesley, the dean of the college of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, Gloria Davies, professor of Chinese Studies at Monash University and Ashley Townsend, director of foreign policy and defence at the US Studies Centre in Sydney.

Describing themselves as scholars, former diplomats and “others with an interest in understanding China and building bridges,” the signatories said they were “deeply concerned about the detentions” of Mr Kovrig and Mr Spavor.

“Many of us know Michael Kovrig through his work as a diplomat in Beijing and as the senior expert for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group,” they said.

“In both roles, Kovrig regularly and openly met with Chinese officials, researchers, and scholars to better understand China’s position on a range of important international issues,” they said.

“Michael Spavor has devoted his time to the building of relationships between North Korea and China, Canada and the US and elsewhere.

“These meetings and exchanges are the foundation of serious research and diplomacy around the world, including for Chinese scholars and diplomats.

“However Kovrig and Spavor’s detentions send a message that this kind of constructive work is unwelcome, and even risky, in China.

“We who share Kovrig and Spavor’s enthusiasm for building genuine, productive and lasting relationships must now be more cautious about travelling and working in China and engaging our Chinese counterparts.

“This will lead to less dialogue and greater distrust and undermine effort to manage disagreements and identify common ground.

“Both China and the rest of the world will be worse off as a result.

“We respectfully ask you to free these two Canadian citizens.”