China frees Canada's 'two Michaels', jailed for more than 1,000 days, after Huawei's Meng cuts deal

[Bernardo de La Paz]

Source: Washington Post

China frees Canada’s ‘two Michaels’, jailed for more than 1,000 days, after Huawei’s Meng cuts deal with U.S.

TORONTO — The two Canadians imprisoned in China for 1,020 days in what Western officials decried a blatant display of “hostage diplomacy” have been released from prison and are “on their way home,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.

The release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — known here as the “two Michaels” — came hours after Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department that allowed her to return to China in exchange for acknowledging some wrongdoing in a criminal case.

Canadian officials arrested Meng, 49, in Vancouver in December 2018, at the behest of U.S. officials who sought her extradition on bank and wire fraud charges related to allegations that she misled a bank about Huawei’s relationship with a subsidiary in Iran. Several days later, China detained Kovrig and Spavor in what was widely seen as tit-for-tat retaliation — and sent ties between Ottawa and Beijing into a sharp nosedive.
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Trudeau, whose minority government was returned to office this week after a snap election, said in Ottawa that Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Spavor, a businessman, had boarded a plane leaving China at 7:30 p.m. Ottawa time. They were accompanied by Canada’s ambassador to China.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/24/canada-two-michaels-china-huawei/

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The two political hostages are free. tRump did nothing for over two years while they rotted in Chinese prison. More than that, he and Pompeo slow-walked the extradition process, waiting till the last day for filings in the Meng case while she stayed in her mansion she owns in Vancouver.

[luvtheGWN]

1. China insisted it wasn't a tit-for-tat.

Whereupon, immediately Meng boarded a plane from Vancouver to Beijing, the two Michaels were released and landed back home in Canada this morning. They had spent over 1,000 days in prison (lights on 24 hours a day). Meanwhile, Meng wore an ankle monitor and lived in her luxurious home in Vancouver.

Canada did what the US wanted, and China lied. It's going to take many moons for the Canada/China relationship to get back to where it once was.

Never, EVER trust China, folks.

[LiberalLovinLug]

2. The world has to stand up to China

They will just continue to employ "hostage diplomacy" in the future to try and get out of conforming to international law. Canada felt it did not have a choice. It had to follow international law and detain Meng based on the US request. China should not have been so arrogant in the first place thinking Meng would be above the law if she travelled to a country that abides by international law.

China should be embarrassed by its childish behaviour and apologize to the two Michaels.

[OnlinePoker]

3. Meanwhile Huseyin Celil is still in prison and has been since 2006

He was a vocal advocate for the Uighur people and was jailed in 1994 and tortured by the Chinese. He made his way to Canada as a refugee in 2001 and became a citizen in 2005. In 2006, he was arrested in Uzbekistan and extradited to China where he has been jailed since. He hasn't been allowed visitors since 2011. China doesn't recognize his Canadian citizenship and has ignored repeated attempts by the Canadian government to get him out. This case is hardly known about in Canada. I guess he isn't ethnically important enough for the mainstream media to make an issue out of like the two Michael's were.

[maxsolomon]

4. Yes, it's Anti-Uighur bias that keeps Celil's case under-publicized in the US.

If it helps, I'd never heard of the 2 Michaels until now. I'd heard of Meng.