China Has Released Canadians Held on Trumped-up Espionage Charges

A Chinese tech executive wanted on fraud charges in the U.S. was coincidentally released by Canada mere hours after China freed two Canadians who were being held on bogus espionage charges.  In September, Huawei's Meng Wanzhou arrived in Shenzhen, hours after two Canadians held three years  by China had been allowed to return home.

China had accused Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig of espionage, but denied detaining them was in retaliation for Meng's arrest by Canadian authorities.   Meng had previously confessed to lying to U.S. investigators about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.  She has been under house arrest in Canada while fighting extradition to the United States.  She was initially arrested in the Vancouver airport on December 1, 2018.

Within a week of Meng's arrest, China retaliated by arresting Spavor and Kovrig on "espionage" charges.  Spavor is a founding member of an organization that facilitates international business and cultural ties with North Korea.  Kovrig is a former diplomat employed by International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.  Spavor and Kovrig have maintained their innocence throughout, and they have been widely seen as being used by China as political bargaining chips.

China had earlier insisted that her case was not related to the sudden arrest of Spavor and Kovrig-- but China's decision to free them after Meng's release shows that pretense has been abandoned.   The Canadian judge overseeing Meng's case ordered her release after she reached a deal with U.S. prosecutors over fraud charges against her.  Meng still faces fraud charges on allegations that she misled banks into processing transactions for Huawei that broke U.S. sanctions against Iran. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, Meng also admitted to misleading HSBC about Huawei's relationship with Skycom, a Hong-Kong based company that operated in Iran.

Meng is the elder daughter of Ren Zhengfei, who set up Huawei in 1987. He also served in the Chinese army for nine years, until 1983, and is a member of the Chinese Communist Party.  Huawei itself is now the largest telecom equipment maker in the world.  It has faced accusations that Chinese authorities could use its equipment for espionage.  In 2019, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Huawei and placed it on an export blacklist, cutting it off from key technologies.  The UK, Sweden, Australia and Japan have also banned Huawei, while other countries including France and India have adopted measures stopping short of an outright ban.