Thirteen Canadians held in China since arrest of Huawei executive

Some 13 Canadians have been detained in China since Canada’s arrest last month of Huawei executive Meng Wangzhou.

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg attends his retrial at the Dalian Intermediate People's Court. Picture; AP.

Some 13 Canadians have been detained in China since Canada’s arrest last month of Huawei executive Meng Wangzhou to face charges of violating US sanctions on doing business with Iran.

While most of those detained have been released, the Canadian government has confirmed that an additional ten Canadians have been detained in addition to the three cases made public — a former diplomat, a businessman and a Canadian teacher — since Ms Meng’s arrest on December 1 to face potential charges of violating US sanctions against Iran.

The two men — Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat who now works as an analyst and researcher for European based think tank, the International Crisis Group, and Michael Spavor, a businessman with extensive ties to North Korea, are still in jail in China, facing accusations of endangering national security following their arrests on December 10.

The teacher, Sarah McIver, who was accused of violating her work visa, has returned to Canada. Global Affairs Canada has confirmed the detentions of Canadian citizens since Meng’s arrest on December 1 as she transited through Vancouver airport on her way to

Mexico although it has said most of the other have been released and have returned to Canada.

Justin Trudeau has accused China of ‘arbitrarily’ applying the death penalty to a Canadian citizen. Picture: AP.

It has not provided any more detail on the other cases but the Canadian government this week has stepped up its advisory notice to its citizens about the potential for them to be subject to the “arbitrary enforcement” of Chinese law following this week’s death sentence issued

to Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg for allegedly attempting to smuggle 222kg of

methamphetamine from China to Australia in pellets stuffed in car tyres.

The US State Department has also issued warnings to its citizens travelling to China for potential “arbitrary enforcement of local laws”, but so far China’s anger appears to be focused on Canada for arresting Ms Meng, rather than on the US for being the source of the extradition request.

Ms Meng remains out on bail but has to return to court in Vancouver on February 6 for a hearing on potential extradition to the US to face charges.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has hit out at this week’s court decision, which changed Mr Schellenberg’s original sentence of 15 years for drug smuggling to the

death penalty after a retrial of his case last month, accusing China of “arbitrarily” applying the death penalty.

Australia’s acting foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, said this morning that Australia was “deeply concerned” about the case.

“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 law ought to be applied fairly,” he said in an interview with the ABC.

China has reacted angrily to the Canadian criticism of the death sentence, saying that drug related crimes need to be taken seriously because of the social damage they cause.

“We urge the Canadian side to respect the rule of law, respect China’s judicial sovereignty, correct its mistakes and stop making irresponsible remarks,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said last night.

“The Canadian government needs to issue advice for its citizens — not for any possible danger in travelling in China, but to warn them against involvement in such a grave crime as drug trafficking,” she said.

She said Canada was playing a game of “stop thief” in its warning to Canadian citizens in China when it was actually Canada which had arbitrarily detained a Chinese citizen “under the pretext of law.”

She said Canada’s detention of Ms Meng was “an abuse of judicial procedures.”

“We hope that the Canadian side will realise its mistake and immediately correct it and release Ms Meng Wanzhou who has been unjustifiably detained,” she said.