Celebrating China's Olympics Coup, Abandoning The Michaels

"China is threatening our citizens and undermining our rights and freedoms with its covert operations in Canada. Everything should be under consideration to defend Canada and Canadians – including a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ."

"[This is an option where this country has some leverage.] Canada is a winter sports powerhouse. No Winter Olympics could be a success without Canada’s participation."

Michael Chong, the Conservative foreign affairs critic

 

"It is now impossible to remain ambivalent on China, knowing what they are doing in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, the South China Sea, etc., and the way they have punished Canada for the arrest of Meng Wanzhou," 

"[Canada should adopt a concerted approach with our allies, and threaten an Olympic boycott] if they don’t allow a UN delegation to go to Xinjiang to investigate the situation of the Uyghurs, repeal the National Security Law (in Hong Kong), or suspend its application and free the two Michaels."

Guy St-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China 

 

"Olympism is 'based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles ... with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity'."

Olympic Charter

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Beijing 2020 headquarters  Beijing Organizing Committee

Canada's foreign affairs department has issued a travel advisory for Canadians planning to visit China:

China - Exercise a high degree of caution Exercise a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws. This makes sense. The risk of such arrest is high; witness the fate of  two Canadians who happened to be in China at a time when the Chinese Communist Party was casting its eye about to identify vulnerabilities to enable them to punish Canada for detaining the CFO of Huawei Technologies Co. on an extradition warrant with the U.S.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were abducted, accused of endangering China's security and held on espionage charges, incommunicado, without direct access to consular assistance, much less legal advice and a lawyer to represent them. Four other Canadians are being held on drug charges, sentenced to death, following the detention of Meng Wanzhou, who is free to live in her two Vancouver mansions awaiting extradition hearings. 

 

People hold signs calling for China to release Canadian detainees Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig during an extradition hearing for Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, March 6, 2019. Photo by Lindsey Wasson /Reuters

Another advisory was issued to Canadians after Beijing imposed its National Security Law on Hong Kong, to the effect that: Canadians in Hong Kong "may be at an increased risk of arbitrary detention on national security grounds and possible extradition to mainland China". In fact that law, (NSL) goes much further, Article 38 states "This Law shall apply to offences under this Law committed against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from outside the Region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the Region". 

 

In other words, anyone living anywhere, within or outside China us to be considered answerable to that law. This is Beijing claiming judicial jurisdiction throughout the world based on the wording of the NSL. Closer to home since the law's introduction, pro-democracy leaders have been imprisoned in Hong Kong, journalists have been prosecuted and elected Hong Kong lawmakers have been summarily disqualified from office while young people of Hong Kong risk their lives to leave for elsewhere in the hopes they can continue campaigning outside of China.

 

Beijing Line-up 2020   Beijing Organizing Committee 2020 Winter Games

 

The Chinese ambassador to Canada as good as implied that the 300,000 Hong Kongers with dual Canadian-Chinese citizenship might be vulnerable, their "health and safety" under threat with continuing worsening relations between China and Canada. The United Kingdom declared China in "clear breach" of the Sino-British Joint Declaration dating from the handover of the British-administered colony of Hong Kong to mainland China, stating it had "broken its promises and undermined Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy". Canada, on the other hand, stricken with trade boycotts, threats, the detention of Canadians, fears antagonizing Beijing further.

That the  government of Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Olympic Committee have no interest in reacting to Chinese aggression, its threats and its damage to the lives of Canadians held for years in Chinese prisons, much less the damage it has wrought on the Canadian economy, and its infiltration into Canadian politics, academia and society in general to gather intelligence and to threaten Chinese-Canadians who champion a free and democratic Hong Kong, is quite stunning. 

And in the shadow of all this background, with Canada's foreign affairs department warning Canadians not to travel to Beijing, to avoid risking arbitrary detention, Canada and the Olympics Committee see nothing amiss in celebrating the 2020 Winter Games held in Beijing, to support Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party in being the first and only city to host both Summer and Winter Olympics. That while Canadians are held in solitary confinement and abused by inhumane conditions and treatment, Canada is not averse to sending its Olympic team to China.

 

There’s been talk Canada should boycott the Beijing Olympics with Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig still in jail. Photo by Oriental Image via Reuters Conne

Beijing's Deadly Stranglehold

"The federal government has to come to the conclusion that the appeasement strategy that has been followed so far, has produced no result."
"That's the kind of behaviour we have to prevent going into the future. We are a small player for China, but I think we can exact a price especially when we're working with others [to prevent Beijing's bullying tactics]."
"The Chinese must come to the conclusion that the extraction process [of Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou on an American extradition warrant] will drag on for years and they decided to up the ante by launching the formal trial [of two Canadians arrested in China under false pretenses of espionage]."
Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian Ambassador to China

"The case has already been developed, it's very likely that they [abducted Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor] will be found guilty of these serious charges."
"The trial itself, because it impinges on national security matters, would probably only amount to half a day. And we [Canada] wouldn't have any access to the proceedings."
"They [Chinese Communist Party] don't have the principle of judicial independence. And therefore, these decisions are made by the Chinese Communist Party."
Charles Burton, associate professor, Brock University

The two Canadians, abducted a year and a half ago in China while they were there on business affairs, as Communist China state retaliation against the arrest several weeks earlier of Huawei's Chief Financial Officer, the daughter of its founder, in response to a U.S. warrant for her arrest and extradition to the U.S., are pawns in a Canada-China standoff, and are guaranteed a guilty verdict on the trumped-up charges of espionage, endangering China's security.

Imprisoned, eventually charged with the crime of espionage, formally ratified just a week ago, the two men have been held virtually incommunicado; not permitted to see their families, to hire lawyers, with only a few sporadic consular visits. Now, under COVID rules, not even that; consular visits as rare as hen's teeth, no longer allowed. They have been exposed to relentless questioning and suffer dire physical and psychological conditions, with constant light and subtle but mind-destroying tactics, given no access to a course of legal action to defend themselves.

Meng Wanzhou leaves her Vancouver home with a security detail.

Don Mackinnon/AFP/Getty Images

Huawei's CFO, on the other hand, has been given bail, and leave to live a normal life in Vancouver at either of her two luxury mansions. Charges against Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave, are "completely baseless" and "groundless", according to Robert Malley, president of the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution organization that had hired him. In his work, Kovrig was "open and transparent"; on the other hand, Chinese officials have been anything but; failing to provide any evidence that the two men were involved in espionage activities as Chinese authorities claim..

They are being used as leverage, to force the government of Canada, to secure their release by waiving the U.S. arrest warrant, despite the extradition treaty between the United States and Canada, and allowing Meng Wanzhou to go free. "It's deeply disappointing, but it's wholly unsurprising. From the very beginning, this has been a political case, not a legal one", observed Mr. Malley, of the standoff between the government of Canada's position and the coercive one of China.

"We are using a wide range of public and private measures to ensure that everything is being done to get the Michaels home", assured Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The two Michaels could be forgiven in believing otherwise. For in response to Beijing's belligerent and strident accusations of Canada behaving in a 'racist' manner by arresting Ms.Meng, and refusing to see 'the error of their ways', releasing her and apologizing, thus securing the release of the Michaels, Canada has been adamant that its position follows the rule of law.

Meng Wanzhou leaves B.C. Supreme Court after losing bid to stop her extradition

But the government of Canada also has not committed itself to reacting in a manner that would give further offence to China. Whereas China arrested two Canadians without cause, gave two other Canadians arrested on drug trafficking charges death penalties, halted the importation of canola products, beef and swine exports from Canada as further penalties, Canada has quietly sought to appease Beijing. Where it has the option of reciprocating on trade issues through the imposition of stiff duties on Chinese imports into Canada, and withdrawal of Canada from the Asian Bank controlled by Beijing, for starters.

The suspense around the government of Canada holding off on making a final decision over whether to allow China's premier telecommunications giant Huawei, whose growth and prominence came at the expense of Canada's Nortel Communications when Huawei used cyberespionage to hijack Nortel secret data to benefit themselves and in the process bringing Nortel to ruin should finally spur Canada to reject Huawei as a partner in Canada's 5G upgrade as its Five Eyes partners have done. To such a scenario, Beijing warned Canada there would be 'consequences'.

Chinese prosecutors said Friday that Michael Kovrig, right, and Michael Spavor have been charged. (The Associated Press/International Crisis Group/The Canadian Press)