The official Chinese newspaper Global Times reported Thursday (March 11), citing sources, that Chinese judicial authorities will soon hold a first trial in the case of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig (Chinese name Kang Mingkai) and Michael Spavor for alleged crimes against Chinese state security.
The Global Times did not specify the Time and place of the first trial. But a source familiar with the matter told the Global Times that Kang Mingkai and Spavor’s case was postponed due to the outbreak of the new crown Epidemic.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded to a reporter’s question on the news Friday, stressing that “China’s judicial organs handle cases in accordance with the law and fully protect all the legal rights of the people concerned.” Zhao Lijian declined to give “more details” about the trial.
The two “Michaels” were arrested by Chinese authorities on Dec. 10, 2018. This was widely seen by the international community as a clear act of retaliation. Their arrest came just days after Canadian authorities arrested huawei‘s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was in Vancouver for an extradition request from the United States.
Outsiders noted that a few days after Circle Time reported the news of the two Canadians’ upcoming trial, U.S. Secretary of State John Blinken and National Security Advisor Sullivan were to hold their first high-level meeting since U.S. President Joe Biden took office with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party‘s Political Bureau in charge of foreign affairs, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
At Friday’s press conference, a reporter asked whether the high-level U.S.-China dialogue would involve the Meng case, to which Zhao responded that the “specific topics to be agreed upon by both sides” of the high-level dialogue.
Chinese authorities deny the claim and say the two Canadians have engaged in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security. Chinese authorities filed formal charges against the two men in June 2020 for “spying on state secrets and intelligence outside the country” and “stealing and illegally providing state secrets outside the country.
The Global Times said that Kang “is accused of entering China since 2017 using ordinary passports and business visas to steal sensitive information and intelligence through Chinese contacts, and Michael Spavor is accused of being a key source of intelligence for Kang.”
Dan Bilefsky, a New York Times reporter in Montreal, Canada, has written that Kang Mingkai and Spavor have been held in harsh prison conditions. He was isolated from the world, sometimes only able to eat rice and cooked vegetables, and had no contact with the outside world for a long time, until he met with Canadian diplomats by video last October. The outside world knows even less about Spavor, who is being held in Dandong and whose relatives have refused to be interviewed by the media.
Canada’s prime minister and foreign minister have consistently said that getting the two Michaels safely released is a top priority for the government. U.S. President Joe Biden has also condemned the arbitrary detention of Cominco and Spavor and pledged to work for their release.
More than 50 countries, including the United States, Britain and Australia, signed the Canadian-led Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations in late February, opposing the detention of foreign nationals by some countries as a diplomatic bargaining chip. The Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations
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