The U.S. and some two dozen nations Wednesday joined in a condemnation of China for its sentencing of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor, who was convicted of espionage in a closed court proceeding Tuesday and given an 11-year prison term.
The December 2018 arrests of Mr. Spavor and fellow Canadian and former diplomat Michael Kovrig were widely seen as retaliation by Beijing for Canada’s decision to detain a top executive of Chinese high-tech giant Huawei at the request of the U.S. government on charges of breaking the international sanctions regime against Iran.
The appeal by Secretary of State Antony Blinken was coordinated with some two dozen countries supporting Canada and condemning Beijing’s handling of the case.
Diplomats from the U.S., Japan, Britain, Australia, Germany and the European Union gathered Wednesday morning at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing in a show of support, calling for Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig to receive fair trials or be released, the Associated Press reported.
The plight of the “two Michaels” has been an especially trying one for Canada, which found itself caught in a feud between the world’s two economic superpowers and has steadfastly resisted Chinese demands to short-circuit its legal system and cut a deal. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau told reporters in Ottawa that Canada will appeal Mr. Spavor’s sentence.
“We stand with the international community in calling for the People’s Republic of China to release, immediately and unconditionally, Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig,” Mr. Blinken said in a statement. “… The practice of arbitrarily detaining individuals to exercise leverage over foreign governments is completely unacceptable. People should never be used as bargaining chips.”
Mr. Blinken said the U.S. was also “deeply troubled by the lack of transparency” in the treatment of the two detained Canadians, who have been kept largely in isolation and given only severely restricted access to their families and legal counsel.
The arrest and long detention without trial of the two Canadians has badly strained Chinese-Canadian relations, even as the extradition hearings for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou have dragged on for more than two years.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau early Wednesday sharply criticized China’s handling of the case, calling Mr. Spavor’s sentence “absolutely unacceptable and unjust.”
“Today’s verdict for Mr. Spavor comes after more than two and a half years of arbitrary detention, a lack of transparency in the legal process and a trial that did not satisfy even the minimum standards required by international law,” Mr. Trudeau said, according to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Mr. Spavor’s family in a statement said that, “while we disagree with the charges, we realize that this is the next step in the process to bring Michael home, and we will continue to support him through this challenging time.”
The Chinese court in the coastal city of Dandong, near the border with North Korea, also ordered that Mr. Spavor be deported. It was not immediately clear whether that would affect how his sentence is carried out.
The court ruled barely a day after another Chinese tribunal upheld a death sentence for Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian convicted on charges of drug smuggling.
The closed-door trial of Mr. Kovrig, also on espionage charges, reportedly concluded in March in Beijing, but no verdict has been announced, Chinese official news outlets said.
The Chinese indictments said Mr. Kovrig stole sensitive information and intelligence through contacts in China since 2017, and Mr. Spavor was a key source supplying him information. The 2019 arrests came shortly after Ms. Meng was detained while trying to board a flight out of Canada.
China’s Embassy in Ottawa rejected the Canadian government’s charges against Ms. Meng as “groundless” and highlighted what it said was the unfair treatment of Ms. Meng, whose extradition case may be finally resolved in the next few months.
The embassy defended the legal process and lashed back at Mr. Garneau, saying his comments today amount to “groundless accusations against China.”
“On the contrary, the Canadian side ignored the political nature of the Meng Wanzhou incident and acted as an accomplice of the United States. Ms. Meng Wanzhou has been detained for nearly 1,000 days without violating any Canadian laws. This is truly arbitrary detention,” the embassy said in a media statement.
Her extradition hearing in Vancouver is in its last few weeks in B.C. Supreme Court. A ruling is expected sometime in the next few months.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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