The International Crisis Group said it was “aware of reports” of Michael Kovrig’s detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Trudeau said Canada is in direct contact with Chinese authorities concerning the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The news comes days after Canada arrested a top executive of the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Trudeau said the case is being taken “very seriously”. Canada’s foreign affairs ministry gave no further details about the incident or its talks with China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tensions between Canada and China have been high over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, on Saturday 1 December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal public safety minister Ralph Goodale told journalists in Ottawa that the government is “deeply concerned by the situation”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister said there is currently no “explicit indication” of any link between her arrest and Mr Kovrig’s reported detention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Kovrig had previously worked as a diplomat in Beijing, Hong Kong and at the UN in New York. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Kovrig has been working since February 2017 as North East Asia senior advisor for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank that focuses on conflict reduction research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He worked with Canada’s foreign affairs ministry between 2010 and 2016 and was posted in Hong Kong and Beijing between 2012 and 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms Meng faces extradition to the US on charges of fraud related to sanctions-breaking business dealings with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She could be jailed for up to 30 years if found guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China has demanded that Canada release Ms Meng or face consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, she was granted bail by a Vancouver judge after a three-day court hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bail was set at C$10m (\u00a36m; $7.4m) in cash and collateral. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The judge said that Ms Meng would be under surveillance 24 hours a day and must wear an electronic ankle tag. She will be unable to go out between 2300 and 0600 and must surrender all passports and travel documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She must return for her next court hearing on 6 February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Canadian, reported to be a former diplomat, has been detained in China and his current employer says it is working for his prompt release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-2621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2622,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions\/2622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}