China held a secret trial Monday for a second Canadian citizen, Michael Kovrig, in an espionage case that is commonly viewed as China seeking leverage to pry Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou away from Canadian and U.S. authorities. The outlook for the him was detained by China in late 2018 in “apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer, at the behest of U.S. prosecutors, appears murky as relations between China and the United States and its allies show no signs of improving soon, particularly in the wake of an acrimonious initial meeting in Alaska between senior Biden administration officials and Chinese officials.”
The verdict on Kovrig, we are still unsure if there is one, would be announced “at a selected time, according to law,” the court said, echoing an announcement a northeastern Chinese court issued about Spavor on Friday. “We are deeply troubled by the total lack of transparency surrounding these hearings and we continue to work toward an immediate end to their arbitrary detention,” Garneau said Monday. “The eyes of the world are on these cases and proceedings and I want to thank our international partners for their continued support and solidarity.” Canadian officials were denied access to the courtroom Friday and Monday, which the Canadian government said was a violation of diplomatic agreements. Foreign media outlets and diplomats from nearly two dozen countries, including the United States and Britain, also gathered outside the courthouse.
We have every right to be critical of the judicial processes in China through the lens of our systems. But China has its own laws and judicial procedures that would have to be applied based on Chinese law whether we like it or not. How these are applied depend on the specifics of the two indictments. One is an allegation of espionage carried out on Chinese soil. The other is allegedly committed some 7000 miles away and reflects the use of the extra-territorial reach of US law into China – apparently a lesser offence.