A Chinese court on Tuesday sentenced Canadian citizen Michael Spavor was to 11 years in prison, just one day after another an appeal against a death sentence by another Canadian national, Robert Schellenberg, was rejected.
The recent convictions by Beijing seem to be in retaliation to the arrest of the embattled Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver in December 2018. These developments have further strained relations between Canada and China, with both countries engaging in trade spats and employing harsh rhetoric against each other.
Schellenberg was arrested in China in 2014 for suspected drug smuggling and convicted in 2018. While Schellenberg has consistently maintained his innocence, he has been accused of attempting to smuggle more than 222 kilograms of methamphetamine from the Chinese port city of Dalian to Australia. His sentence was abruptly increased in 2019 from a 15-year prison term to death following Meng’s arrest.
On the other hand, Spavor, who was detained in 2018, was convicted for spying activities and sharing state secrets with foreign countries and sentenced to 11 years in prison and deportation. It is unclear if Spavor will be deported before or after serving his prison sentence. However, Canadian Ambassador to China Dominic Barton, who attended Spavor’s hearing in Dandong, a coastal city near the Chinese border with North Korea, said he believes Spavor will be deported after completing his sentence.
Barton also said that the convictions were not coincidental and expressed his government’s displeasure in a video address to diplomats and journalists gathered at the Canadian embassy. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this decision after a legal process that lacked both fairness and transparency,” CBC News quoted Barton as saying.
The Canadian government also protested Schellenberg’s unjust sentence. “Canada strongly condemns China’s decision to uphold the death penalty sentence...We have repeatedly expressed to China our firm opposition to this cruel and inhumane punishment,” Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Meng, who was arrested in Vancouver in 2018 on a bank fraud warrant issued by the Donald Trump administration, is currently facing trial. American prosecutors claim that Meng misled bankers at HSBC about Huawei’s relationship with SkyCom, putting HSBC at risk of violating United States (US) sanctions against Iran.
In response, Meng’s lawyers accused American prosecutors of acting in “bad faith” and abusing the Canadian justice system. Based on this, they have argued that the CFO’s extradition process must be nulled.
The issue was also brought up in a recent face-to-face meeting between Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. During the rare in-person high-level meeting between the duo in months, Sherman was presented with a “List of Wrongdoings that Must Stop” and a “List of Key Individual Cases that China Has Concerns,” which included withdrawing the CFO’s extradition.
China Retaliates Against Arrest of Huawei CFO With Prison Sentences for Two Canadians
A Chinese court sentenced a Canadian national to 11 years in prison and upheld the death sentence of another Canadian in retaliation to Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou’s 2018 arrest in Vancouver.
August 11, 2021
SOURCE: CNN