Jim Nickel, Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, recently paid consular visits to Canadian citizens Kang Mingkai and Spivey, who are being held in Chinese custody and charged with criminal offences. This is the first time since their trial in mid-March that the Canadian side has been allowed to visit them.
According to the Central News Agency today quoted the Canadian television network CTV, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on January 1 that the Canadian chargé d’affaires in Beijing visited Kang Mingkai and Spivey by video. The message said that no further details were disclosed in it based on privacy regulations, but stressed that the Canadian government continues to pay close attention to Kang Mingkai (Michael Kovrig) and Spavor, who have been arbitrarily detained by Chinese authorities since December 2018, and continues to call for their release.
According to Canadian media sources, Ni Jemin visited former Canadian diplomat Kang Mingkai and businessman Spavor by visual consular access on March 30 and 31, respectively. It was the first time the Canadian side has been allowed to visit the two men since their trial in mid-March.
The meeting between top U.S. and Chinese officials in Alaska on March 18 coincided with the first trial of Spivey, who had been in custody for more than two years, by a Chinese court on March 19 and the second trial of Kang Mingkai on March 22. As both cases were heard behind closed doors, the lack of transparency triggered a wave of condemnation from Canada and other countries.
The Central News Agency said that in December 2018, at the request of the United States, Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the treasurer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, and soon after, Beijing also arrested Kang Mingkai and Spivey, and subsequently charged them respectively with “spying on state secrets and intelligence for foreign countries” and “stealing and illegally providing state secrets for foreign countries. They were subsequently charged with “spying on state secrets and intelligence for foreign countries” and “stealing and illegally providing state secrets for foreign countries. It is widely believed that the Chinese authorities arrested the two men in retaliation against Canada.
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