OTTAWA - A third Canadian has been
detained in China following the arrest of a Chinese technology
executive in Vancouver, a Canadian government official said on
Wednesday amid a diplomatic dispute also involving the United
States.
The detentions of the Canadians followed the Dec. 1 arrest
in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd., at the request of the United States, which is engaged
in a trade war with China.
The Canadian official, who spoke on the condition of not
being identified, said there is no reason to believe the latest
detention is linked to the previous arrests. The official gave
no details of the latest incident.
Last week two Canadians - former diplomat Michael Kovrig and
businessman Michael Spavor - were detained by China amid the
diplomatic quarrel triggered by Meng's arrest.
The Canadian government has said several times it saw no
explicit link between the arrest of Meng, the daughter of
Huawei’s founder, and the detentions of Kovrig and Spavor. But
Beijing-based Western diplomats and former Canadian diplomats
have said they believed the detentions were a "tit-for-tat"
reprisal by China.
Meng is accused by the United States of misleading
multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions, putting the
banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions.
She was released on
bail in Vancouver, where she owns two homes, while waiting to
learn if she will be extradited to the United States. She is due
in court on Feb. 6.
TRUMP COMMENTS
U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters last week he might
intervene in the case if it would serve national security
interests or help close a trade deal with China.
The comments upset Canada, which warned the United States
against politicising extradition cases.
A source with direct knowledge of the situation said senior
officials at the Canadian Foreign Ministry had held many
meetings about the detainees but that a formal task force had
yet to be created.
"At this point, Canada is trying to buy time by stressing it
has a rules-based order and an independent judiciary," said the
source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity
of the situation.
A second source said Canada was concerned that the detainees
were in the hands of the powerful security authorities.
"Even if there were voices of reason in the Chinese system
saying, 'Are you crazy? The Canadian government cannot order a
judge to release Ms. Meng,' the security voices are going to
trump them," the source said.
The last time Canadians were detained in China for security
reasons was in 2014 when Kevin and Julia Garratt, who ran a
coffee shop in northeastern China, were held near the border
with North Korea. She was released and left the country while
her husband was charged with spying and stealing state secrets
before being released and deported two years later.
The arrest of the Garratts came shortly after Chinese
businessman Su Bin was picked up on a U.S. warrant in Canada.
If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges
of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, with a
maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge.
China has protested her arrest to the U.S. ambassador and
said Washington should withdraw its arrest warrant. Last week,
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the detention of the
first two Canadians was unlawful and called for their release.
Huawei is the world’s biggest supplier of telecoms network
equipment and second biggest smartphone seller. The United
States has been looking since at least 2016 into whether Huawei
shipped U.S.-origin products to Iran and other countries in
violation of U.S. export and sanctions laws, Reuters reported in
April.