Beijing says Chinese tech executive was \u2018wrongly detained\u2019, as Ottawa\u2019s efforts continue for the release of two Canadians held in China<\/b>
\nBeijing on Friday continued to vent its fury at Canada over the arrest of Chinese tech executive Sabrina Meng Wanzhou at the request of the US, saying it has caused \u201cpublic anger\u201d in China.
Spavor and Kovrig were detained in China after Meng, the chief financial officer of telecoms firm Huawei Technologies, was arrested at Vancouver airport on December 1 while she was on her way from Hong Kong to Mexico. Beijing has not said directly whether the cases are connected.
\u201cThe Canadian government, at the request of the US side, wrongly detained this Chinese citizen,\u201d foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. \u201cThis action has aroused public anger in China.\u201d
The decision to arrest Meng to aid a US extradition effort has made Canada the focus of China\u2019s ire, even as US President Donald Trump\u2019s trade war sits at the centre of the dispute. Chinese consumers have called for Canadian goods to be boycotted, iPhones to be thrown away and Huawei handsets bought instead.
China on Thursday announced the investigation against Spavor by the state security bureau of Dandong city, which borders North Korea.
\u201cWe have raised this case directly with the Chinese authorities,\u201d the Canadian government said late on Thursday in response to a query from the South China Morning Post, without elaborating.
\u201c[We] will continue to speak with the Chinese government. We are providing consular assistance to the family,\u201d it added.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan were set to meet their US counterparts Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis in Washington on Friday. Freeland and Sajjan were expected to raise their concerns over China\u2019s detention of the two Canadians during the meeting.
Meanwhile, China\u2019s ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye on Thursday called the arrest of Meng a \u201cpremeditated political action\u201d orchestrated by the US government, linking the issue with its arrest of Spavor and increasing the pressure on Canada.
\u201cThose who accuse China of detaining some person in retaliation for the arrest of Ms Meng should first reflect on the actions of the Canadian side. It is both ignominious and hypocritical to revile China with double standards,\u201d Lu said in an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail.
Canada has had a relatively good relationship with China over the past few decades \u2013 China is now Canada\u2019s second-largest trading partner after the US, and its investment has powered real estate booms in Vancouver and Toronto.
One-third of international students in Canada are Chinese. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also talked about a possible free-trade agreement with China in a bid to diversify Canada\u2019s trade, which relies on the US for 75 per cent of its exports.
Sean King, a former US diplomat who is now senior vice-president of political strategy firm Park Strategies, said Beijing\u2019s actions could be \u201ca signal to other countries not to stand by Washington in similar situations\u201d.
He added that this \u201cmight turn out to be Canada\u2019s own THAAD moment in how it views mainland Chinese policies\u201d, referring to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system.
South Korean firms came under enormous pressure from China after Seoul deployed the US military\u2019s anti-missile system in Seongju county.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Bloomberg<\/p>\n