US economy

Detained Canadian was a well-connected figure


The former Canadian diplomat detained in China following the arrest of a senior Huawei executive in Vancouver is a gregarious figure known for sharing his insights into Beijing’s opaque policymaking process.

Michael Kovrig, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, a policy research non-profit organisation, was detained in Beijing on Monday as Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of the telecoms group’s founder, applied for bail in Canada. Ms Meng is fighting extradition to the US, which has accused her of allowing American equipment to be sold to Iran in violation of sanctions. She was released on C$10m bail on Tuesday.

Mr Kovrig was first secretary at the Canadian embassy in Beijing from 2014-2016. He was a well-known — and well-connected — figure among Beijing expats and the international community of China watchers.

A graduate of the University of Toronto and a Mandarin speaker, Mr Kovrig was posted to Hong Kong before his Beijing posting after working at the ministry of foreign affairs in Ottawa and a stint at the United Nations Development Programme.

He told friends after his June 2016 leaving party at the Canadian embassy that he looked forward to being around China “for the next good while”.

Mr Kovrig lives in Hong Kong, where he covers negotiations for the denuclearisation of North Korea at the ICG.

According to statement released on Monday by his employer: “Michael has distinguished himself for his rigorous and impartial reporting, regularly interviewing Chinese officials to accurately reflect their views in our work.”

He is on leave without pay from Canadian government service and was, therefore, travelling on a personal passport and did not have diplomatic immunity, according to a tweet by Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China.

Given the timing of Mr Kovrig’s detention and Beijing’s recent warnings against Canada, “it feels like it would be a stretch to say they are not related”, said Peter Mattis, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a US think-tank. “It’s well within the range of normal tools” used by Beijing, he added.

Mr Saint-Jacques told CBC news that he would be surprised if the case was not linked to Ms Meng’s arrest. “In China there is no coincidence,” he said.

“If the situation is highly sensitive, the sensitivity comes from the unfair pressure the US has put on China plus the US and Canada colluding in the ambush arrest of Meng Wanzhou,” wrote Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, following Mr Kovrig’s detention.

Mr Kovrig is not the first Canadian to be detained by Beijing when a Chinese citizen has faced extradition to the US. In 2014, Kevin and Julia Garratt, a couple who ran a coffee shop near the North Korean border, were arrested as Canada was extraditing Chinese citizen Su Bin, who was accused of stealing military secrets, to the US.

Mr Garratt served two years in jail in China and Ms Garratt six months.

Mr Su was sentenced to four years in prison in the US and released in 2017.

Additional reporting by Tom Hancock in London

@HornbyLucy





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