A Chinese court on Friday continued a trial against a Canadian businessman who has been in custody for more than two years on a charge of espionage, in a case that has screamed worldwide and should appeal to the United States.
A court in Dandong, a city in northeastern China, has held the trial of Canadian Michael Spavor, who has campaigned for the promotion of cultural travel to North Korea, before arresting him in late 2018. is, in apparent retaliation for Canada’s decision to arrest a top Chinese executive. at the request of the United States.
The court said in a brief statement that Mr. Spavor trial is on charges of espionage and ‘illegal supply of state secrets abroad’. It is said that a verdict will be announced later.
In a sign of China’s efforts to control the proceedings, the authorities banned the public and news media from attending the trial. A group of ten diplomats representing eight countries, including Canada and the United States, have sought access to the trial in Dandong, a coastal city near China’s border with North Korea. The court said the trial, which lasted about two hours, was kept private because it involved state secrets.
“We are deeply concerned about the lack of transparency surrounding these proceedings,” Jim Nickel, a top official at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, who is trying to attend the trial, said in a statement.
Another Canadian, Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat who was also detained in 2018, is expected to stand trial in Beijing on Monday.
Since their detention, Mr. Spavor and mr. Kovrig is at the center of a heated international dispute between China, Canada and the United States.
China, which accuses Western countries of trying to stem its rise as a technological superpower, is urging the United States to drop a comprehensive fraud case against Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese technology giant Huawei. The United States, requesting the extradition of Ms. Meng, called on China to release Mr. Spavor and mr. Kovrig to release.
“The trial of the two Michaels is revenge for Ms. Mix,” he said Guy Saint-Jacques, a veteran Canadian ambassador to China, whom Mr. Kovrig’s boss was first secretary at the Canadian embassy in Beijing. “This is a message to Canada and the world: ‘Do not mess with China. ‘
The issue of the Canadians was expected to come up when top officials of the Biden administration met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage on Thursday. Friends and family members of Mr. Spavor and mr. Kovrig has called on President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to secure his release.
U.S. officials said Friday that they were “deeply concerned” about China’s decision to proceed with the trial. Spavor and mr. Kovrig. “We stand shoulder to shoulder with Canada in calling for their immediate release,” a U.S. embassy spokesman in Beijing said in a statement.
Any compromise with Beijing could be elusive, as China did not show signs of withdrawal, but rather used the prosecution of the two men to project an image of strength and demand that the United States withdraw its extradition request for Ms Meng.
“Beijing makes it clear that the two Michaels are going to be executed with Chinese characteristics: closed to the public and the media,” said Diana Fu, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. “Its actions leave little doubt as to who will make the final decision on the fate of the Canadians – the Chinese Communist Party, not Biden, not Trudeau.”
The imprisonment of the two men spurred calls in Canada for tougher action against China. According to a recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute, a leading polling station company, only 14 percent of Canadians have a favorable view of China. The majority sees the Chinese government’s liberation of the two Canadians as a prerequisite for restoring relations.
“There’s a setback against China in Canada, and the trial will only harden the stance,” said Gordon Houlden, director of emeritus at the University of Alberta. He added that the case of the two Michaels underlined the limited leverage of a middleman like Canada when faced with an economic and political sense like China.
Legal experts and human rights activists have denounced China’s treatment of Canadians, accusing Chinese officials of using ‘hostage diplomacy’. The two men, who are being held in separate prisons in northern China, have been largely cut off from the world and sometimes forced to go months without visits from diplomats. They had limited access to defense attorneys.
“Like so many cases in which Chinese authorities want to silence a critic or get a score right, these cases have nothing to do with the law,” said Sophie Richardson, director of China at Human Rights Watch.
A self-described consultant, Mr. Spavor, ran an organization in Dandong that promoted cultural travel to North Korea. He established high-level contact there and once met North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. In 2013, Mr. Spavor helped arrange Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star, to North Korea.
“Michael is just an ordinary Canadian businessman,” his family said in a statement Friday. “He liked to live and work in China and would never have done anything to offend the interests of China or the Chinese people. We stand by Michael and maintain his innocence in this difficult situation. ”
Claire Fu and Albee Zhang contributed research.