China envoy says Kovrig, Spavor confessed to crimes, warns against rejecting Huawei
OTTAWA - China's ambassador to Canada says Michael Kovrig
and Michael Spavor confessed to crimes before their release from his country's
prisons this past September.
Envoy Cong Peiwu also said Friday Canada will pay a price if
it blocks Chinese telecom company Huawei from participating in the country's 5G
internet network as its Five Eyes Allies, the United States, Britain, Australia
and New Zealand have already done.
Canada delayed its decision on 5G out of concern for Kovrig
and Spavor who were imprisoned in China for nearly three years in apparent
retaliation for the RCMP's arrest of Huawei executive of Meng Wanzhou on an
American extradition warrant in December 2018.
China convicted Kovrig and Spavor of espionage in closed
trials that were widely criticized by Canada and dozens of Western allies who
rejected the charges against the men as trumped-up retaliation.
“The information reviewed by Chinese authorities shows that
the evidence of the crimes is indisputable. And also, they have confessed to
their crimes,” Cong said Friday to a small group of Canadian and Chinese
reporters in an invitation-only video news conference.
A Chinese state-controlled newspaper, citing anonymous
sources, first reported shortly after their release in September that the two
men confessed, and also said they had been released on bail for medical reasons
and had to “strictly abide” by conditions.
The initial report in the Global Times newspaper, widely
viewed as an organ of the Chinese Communist Party, provided no further details.
“The two Canadians should strictly abide by the decision on
bail made by relevant Chinese courts. In case of violation, China can resume,
in accordance with law, the trial of the alleged criminal acts any time while
on bail,” Cong said Friday when pressed for further details by The Canadian
Press.
Cong was responding to remarks by Foreign Affairs Minister
Melanie Joly, who revived speculation about the matter during an interview with
CBC's “Power and Politics” on Wednesday.
“We want to make sure to continue to advocate their case,
because there are certain issues that have not been settled yet,” Joly told the
news program after meeting with Kovrig and Spavor.
When pressed by her interviewer to elaborate on the issues,
she replied: “The two Michaels are on bail right now, according to the criminal
law in China. And, so we want to make sure that we work that out with the
Chinese government. It will be a priority.”
Global Affairs Canada did not directly address Cong's claim
of a confession, but reiterated the government's long-held position in a
written statement: “As Canada has always maintained, Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor
were detained arbitrarily for political leverage and Canada has repeatedly
expressed concerns regarding the arbitrary nature of the whole process.”
Joly was in Liverpool, England, for a G7 foreign ministers'
meeting, where China's military provocations in the South China Sea and against
Taiwan were to be discussed.
Cong said China wants to move forward with a positive
relationship with Canada, noting that their trade volume has risen despite the
decline in diplomatic relations over the three years since the onset of the
Meng-two Michaels affair.
He dismissed Canada's decision this week to join a
diplomatic boycott of the February Winter Olympics as political posturing that
would not diminish the spectacle of sport that Beijing would be hosting.
In announcing the boycott. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
cited extensive human rights abuses by China, as did several western allies
such as the United States, Britain and Australia that include crimes against
its Muslim Uyghur population, Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and military
provocations towards Taiwan.
The Trudeau Liberals are expected to announce a decision
soon on Huawei participation in its next-generation 5G internet network, and
Cong made clear China will take a dim view of Canada if it follows its
intelligence-sharing allies in the Five Eyes.
“We hope that it will be a positive momentum for the
relationship, rather than those negative things that will be detrimental to the
relationship. Of course, they will pay a price for their erroneous deeds and
actions,” said Cong.
Experts say Canada should expect economic retaliation from
China following the Olympic boycott and the likely decision to exclude Huawei
from its 5G internet network.
“I suspect we will get punished for the eventual decision on
Huawei rather than the Olympics,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian
ambassador to China.
After Canada arrested Meng, China blocked imports of
Canadian beef and pork, as well as canola.
“This time, they could choose a product that they can get
elsewhere: barley? wheat? canola? pork? beef? iron ore?” said Saint-Jacques.
Bessma Momani, an international affairs expert at the
University of Waterloo, said President Xi Jinping could also take action to
curtail Chinese investment in Canada in a variety of sectors, including the
housing market.
“Much of China's investments in Canada has gone into energy
that China craves, but too much has also gone into real estate as a way for
Chinese elite to funnel money outside of the country,” said Momani.
“This latter investment could be curtailed further as a
Chinese countermeasure, but which may not be a bad thing for homeowners seeing
skyrocketing prices.”
Momani said even though cutting the flow of Chinese
investment in Canadian real estate could drive down prices and make homes
affordable to more Canadians, Xi still has a strong incentive to do that
anyway.
“There's a lot of mainland money but there's a lot of Hong
Kong money that's coming into the real estate sector,” she said.
“This would kind of damage the Hong Kong independence
momentum.”
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