Chinese officials are fuming about a Canadian-led condemnation of hostage diplomacy, an initiative that highlights widespread distaste for a human rights abuse favored in Beijing.
“The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition over this, and has lodged stern representations with the Canadian side,” a Chinese Embassy spokesman in Canada protested. “The Canadian side’s attempt to pressure China by using ‘Megaphone Diplomacy’ or ganging up is totally futile and will only head towards a dead end.”
Dozens of countries joined Canada in denouncing the use of “arbitrary arrest, detention, or sentencing to exercise leverage over foreign governments.” The roster of signatories spanned North America and Europe, with additional support coming from Latin America and Africa.
The absence of China and Russia from the list reflects another fissure between global heavyweights embroiled in a series of economic and human rights disputes.
“It’s time to send a clear message to every government that arbitrarily detains foreign nationals and tries to use them as leverage: This will not be tolerated by the international community,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. “The fact that so many countries are endorsing this declaration is a sign of its strength.”
The declaration makes no mention of any particular malefactor, and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau avoided offering any more specificity. A human rights activist involved in the launch Monday, however, pointed the finger at the Chinese Communist regime on behalf of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians arrested by Chinese authorities in apparent retaliation for Canada’s detention of a senior Huawei executive.
“The Chinese government’s detentions of the Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor epitomizes this despicable practice,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said during an event.
Chinese officials took that rebuke as a message from the Canadian government but countered by condemning Canada’s arrest of a Huawei vice president, Meng Wanzhou. Meng, who faces fraud charges in the United States, has been in Canada since 2019 fighting extradition.
“It acts as an accomplice of the U.S., and helps the U.S. to use Meng Wanzhou as a bargaining chip to oppress Chinese enterprises,” the Embassy spokesman said. “This kind of act is no different from a thief shouting to catch a thief. How hypocritical and despicable.”
The U.S. and Canada have an extradition treaty. Meng’s case stems from “the alleged decades-long efforts by Huawei, and several of its subsidiaries … to misappropriate intellectual property, including from six U.S. technology companies,” according to Justice Department officials. The disputes range beyond the case of “the two Michaels,” as they’re known, and the Huawei executive, and so the initiative heartened the families of other detainees.
There are 44 Americans known to be “wrongfully detained abroad,” according to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation.
“Not surprisingly, the nations that engage in this sort of hostage diplomacy, like the Russian Federation, have not endorsed it,” Paul Whelan, brother of the former Marine seized in December 2018 while traveling in Russia, wrote Tuesday in an email to journalists and supporters.
“It is a low bar to oppose arbitrary arrest, detention, and sentencing,” Whelan added. “This opposition shouldn’t need to be put in writing but we are grateful for Canada’s leadership on the declaration. By highlighting those who oppose arbitrary detention, it places in shadow those nations that are willing to engage in taking hostages as a diplomatic tool.”
