Canada-China ... Relations ...
"International Crisis Group is aware of reports that its North East Asia senior adviser, Michael Kovrig, has been detained in China."
"Since February 2017, Michael has been a full-time expert for Crisis Group. We are doing everything possible to secure additional information on Michael's whereabouts as well as his prompt and safe release."
International Crisis Group statement
"It would be hard not to see this as tit for tat, especially given China's warning to us of consequences, and because this is all-too characteristic of China's preferred hardball tactics."
David Mulroney, Canadian ambassador to China, 209-2012
"As I like to say, there's no coincidence in China. The way they operate, I'm sure that they have a list of people that they could arrest on all kinds of flimsy charges."
"The government [of Canada] will have to react very forcefully to this because what I expect is we will witness a very rapid deterioration of the relationship."
"[It's clear the Chinese strategy is to put] as much political pressure as possible on the Canadian government [in the wake of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies CFO's arrest on a Vancouver stopover to Mexico]."
"Michael's work was doing detailed political reporting. We created a special program at Global Affairs [Foreign Affairs] about 15 years ago to deepen it, and with that, the idea was to ask an officer to look at fewer files, give him a budget. Michael travelled quite a bit in China, he travelled to Xinjiang [geography of Muslim Uighurs] a number of times and did some great reporting."
"But of course in China, the line between doing good political reporting and espionage can be very tiny."
Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to China
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| Kevin Garratt embraces his wife Julia at the Vancouver International Airport on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016 after being jailed in China for more than two years. The Garratts are advising former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig's loved ones to be patient as they wait for his release by Chinese authorities. (James Zimmerman/CP/HO) |
And so the inevitable. A Canadian with Foreign Affairs, familiar with Beijing and Hong Kong, on leave from the Department and working for the International Crisis Group as North East Asia adviser based in Hong Kong has been detained by Chinese authorities on suspicion of espionage. They'd certainly have a 'case' for espionage given he was dispatched as a Canadian diplomat employed in China to personally peruse the condition of oppressed Muslims in Xinjiang...
That 'political research' that Michael Kovrig worked on and completed for the Canadian embassy in Beijing, complete with interviewing dissidents would most certainly have marked him as a potential target in response to just such an incident as one of China's most government-entrenched leaders of industry being arrested on an American warrant linked to the company she represents having manipulated U.S. financial institutions in helping to finance technology transfers to Iran despite U.S. sanctions.
The International Crisis Group, furthermore, for whom Kovrig has been working for the past two years while on leave from Foreign Affairs, has been tracking and reporting on accounts of China's "political re-education camps" for Muslims in Xinjiang province. Part of Kovrig's duties at the embassy certainly prepared him for continuing that investigation under the aegis of the NGO he now acts on behalf of. A more obvious target to counter the arrest of Huawei's Meng Wanzhou couldn't be imagined.
"The level of fury on Chinese social media, some of the statemnts we've heard from Beijing makes it look like this is going to be something that's going to have knock-on effects for quite some time."Back in Vancouver there was loud clapping from the public gallery as B.C. Supreme Court Justice William Ehrcke granted $10-million bail for Meng Wanzhou, ordering her to wear an ankle bracelet, to surrender her passports, to remain in Vancouver, confining herself to one of her two Vancouver homes from 11p.m. to 6a.m. There are four sureties guaranteeing she is not a flight risk, all living locally, one pledging $1.8-million, another $500,000, the third $850,000 and the fourth $50,000, acting as character witnesses as well.
University of British Columbia professor Paul Evans
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| Michael Kovrig, an adviser with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based non-governmental organization, is seen in a still image from an interview in Hong Kong in March, 2018. Kovrig has been detained in China, according to the Canadian government. (Associated Press) |
Labels: Canada, China, Diplomacy
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, December 13, 2018
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