Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor granted bail for medical reasons, not because Meng Wanzhou was released, China says

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This article was published 27/09/2021 (1500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA—The Chinese government denies it released Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in exchange for the release of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, saying the two Canadian detainees sought bail “for medical reasons.”

At a Beijing news conference Monday, China foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying adopted the same hostile stand towards Canada and the U.S. that the Communist Party authorities have had since Meng was first arrested in Canada on U.S. bank fraud charges on Dec. 1, 2018.

Although Meng agreed to the American authorities’ version of Huawei’s actions, agreeing she deceived a U.S. based financial institution to evade Iran sanctions, and signed a deferred prosecution deal to that effect, Chinese authorities are striking back, continuing to claim she was charged on a trumped-up indictment and that Canada had done the U.S.’s “dirty work” in arresting her.

If anyone thought Meng’s release and the subsequent release of the two Michaels would lead to any détente in the Canada-China relationship, China on Monday made clear it’s not interested.

“The Meng Wanzhou incident is a political frame-up and persecution against a Chinese citizen, an act designed to hobble Chinese high-tech companies,” said Hua, hailing Meng’s return to China “safe and sound.”

She went on to say their cases were “completely different in essence”.

“Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, suspected of committing crimes endangering national security of China, applied for release on bail for medical reasons,” Hua claimed — an assertion that Canada has not confirmed. Hua said Canada’s ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, had offered a guarantee that secured their release, attempting to portray it as a decision grounded in law, not pure geopolitics.

“After the confirmation from related departments and diagnosis of professional medical institutes of China and under the guarantee of the Canadian ambassador to China, the Chinese courts concerned decided to release them on bail in accordance with law and national security authorities enforced the decision.”

Hua also threatened that their bail could be revoked, saying “The two defendants confessed to their crimes, and they should strictly abide by the decision on bail made by relevant Chinese courts. In case of violation, China can resume, in accordance with law, the trial of the alleged criminal acts anytime while on bail.” Hua’s remarks were published in translation on the foreign ministry’s website.

There was no immediate response from Kovrig’s family or the Canadian government.

Vina Nadjibulla, Kovrig’s spouse, told the Star Monday that neither Kovrig nor other family members are doing any more interviews immediately, beyond comments over the weekend where they expressed their deep relief and gratitude that he’d finally been released. Kovrig appeared pale, but nonetheless strong in those brief glimpses.

Seated on the porch at his sister Ariana Botha’s home, he told Global News Saturday “I’m running on about two hours of sleep in the last 24-plus hours, so I don’t have any exciting plans just yet.”

Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Kristen Hillman told CTV’s Question Period Sunday that their release was set in motion because of what she called the “completely independent” American judicial proceedings to settle the charges against Meng.

Hillman denied the U.S. tied a condition to that deal that China would release the two Michaels, detained since Dec. 10, 2018.

Instead the Canadian ambassador said it was the Chinese government that said “it was time to put this behind them and to move on.”

“As the resolution for Ms. Meng was heading towards success, and the parties to that discussion felt that they were heading towards success, the Chinese government made its decision,” she said. “And its decision was that it was no longer in its interests to continuing holding the Michaels, and so they started the process in talking to our officials in Beijing about making arrangements to have the Michaels leave.”

Asked when China conveyed that to Canada, Hillman said “We knew obviously far enough in advance to have the planes in place.”

But the two men were in the dark until that day, she said.

“They knew that something was happening a few hours before, but they only knew that they were going home really moments before they boarded the plane,” Hillman told host Evan Solomon.

China’s ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, accompanied Meng on a Chinese-government chartered Air China jet back to Shenzhen, Hua confirmed. Asked how that squares with China’s insistence that Huawei was an independent company, Hua said the Communist Party “and the Chinese government attach great importance to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and enterprises.”

Hua, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Canada “should not have done the dirty work for the U.S. Canada should draw lessons and start from its own interests. As for the timing, I want to point out that the groundless detention of Meng Wanzhou is a serious mistake made by the U.S. and Canada, which they should have corrected long ago.”

On Sunday, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau told CBC that Canada is approaching Canada-China relations with “eyes wide open” — a phrase the Canadian government has coined since the detention of Kovrig and Spavor, saying where it makes sense to co-operate, Ottawa will do so in areas like climate action, for example.

Hua said Monday, “state-to-state relations can only be built on mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits. China-Canadian relations are no exception. We hope Canada can keep its eyes wide open, have a clear understanding of the situations, and adopt rational and practical China policy.”

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc