World

China Vs. Canada

Editor Jesse Starcher

Chinese-Canadian relations in recent times have become very tense over business. Canada, a few months back, detained CFO Meng Wanzhou of Huawei, a massive Chinese technology firm in her home in Vancouver. Meng and her company have been accused of violating Iranian sanctions, and many have barred their products from their countries, out of fears that it could be used for Chinese espionage. Canada wishes to extradite her to the U.S. for sentencing, but China had greatly opposed this.

In what many believe to be a tit for tat move, China wrongfully detained two Canadian citizens. The two men are Michael Kovrig, a businessman, and Michael Spavor, a former diplomat with close ties to, oddly enough, the Pro-Chinese North Korean government.

China had also pulled another Canadian into the mix, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, formally detained for drug trafficking, was pulled out of prison to increase his punishment. It was decided that the fifteen year sentence was not enough, and that, instead, he should be sentenced to death. This has understandably sparked lots of controversy and has, again, further increased tensions between the two.

Both the U.S. and Canada have also updated their travel advisory to China. Their sites claim that people who wish to travel to China, should exercise “extreme caution”. This is due to China’s use of “exit bans”, escentially barring foreigners from leaving for up to years. They do this so that they can use these foreigners for political gain.

The Canadian travel site also claims that one could even face the death penalty for crimes as small as drug use, just as Robert Schellenberg had. China has retaliated with its own travel advisories against Canada, claiming them to be “dangerous’ and “high risk” targets.

Going back to Meng, after being kept under house arrest in her luxurious home in Vancouver, she has struck out against Canadian with a lawsuit. She claims that the government and its forces had wrongfully detained, searched, and interrogated her.

The suit claims that before Meng was even arrested, Canadian authorities had questioned her, claiming it was “normal routine”. She has also made claims that they had seized her electronic devices, and unlawfully searched them.

As of now, Meng is released on bail, and is awaiting the proceedings to be extradited to the U.S. for sentencing. The U.S. has mostly been very quiet on the whole situation, except for Mr. Trump himself.

President Trump is currently trying to negotiate an end to the massive trade war between the U.S. and China, and has claimed to come very close. On being asked whether he would intervene in Meng’s case, he stated essentially, that, “if it helps the country and if I think it will be good for the trade deal, I will.”

As of now, relations remain tense, and both nations have not budged, it seems it will be up to the United state’s decision on this matter.