Canada kidnaps your high-level tech executives and holds them hostage, but they will not tolerate you prosecuting their spies.
RT:
Canadian businessman Michael Spavor has been sentenced to an 11-year prison term in China on espionage charges. Ottawa condemned the verdict, which it sees as part of retaliation for the arrest of a Huawei executive in Canada.
A court in the city of Dandong, located far in China’s northeast along the border with North Korea, handed down the sentence early on Wednesday, consigning Spavor to more than a decade behind bars. The court announced the decision in a brief statement, noting that the Canadian national was previously charged for “spying abroad and illegally providing state secrets.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced the ruling as “unacceptable and unjust,” saying it follows “more than two and a half years of arbitrary detention, a lack of transparency in the legal process, and a trial that did not satisfy even the minimum standards required by international law.”
He added that his administration is “working around the clock” to secure the release of both Spavor and another Canadian facing spying charges in China, Michael Kovrig.
Though Spavor has the right to appeal Wednesday’s decision, it remains unclear whether he will attempt to do so. The Dandong court also noted that he would be deported at some point, which Ottawa’s ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, interpreted to mean after his 11-year sentence is up.
Both Spavor and Kovrig – commonly known in Canada as the ‘two Michaels’ – were arrested in 2018 on espionage allegations, just weeks after Canadian authorities detained a top executive at China-based telecom firm Huawei, claiming she conspired to circumvent unilateral American sanctions on Iran.
The “arrest” of Meng was undoubtedly and objectively a political kidnapping and hostage situation. All China did was arrest two known spies, who are totally worthless, lest they be seen as weak.
Every nation keeps track of foreign spies. They do not arrest them on sight, as they are more valuable being watched. Swooping on a couple of them in retaliation for something totally outrageous is meek behavior, purely designed to save face.
Framing it as some kind of escalation is delusional and deranged.
I just realized that Trudeau has a mask on in his Twitter profile pic.
Please read my statement on China’s unacceptable and unjust conviction and sentencing of Michael Spavor: https://t.co/HkclGFeWCB
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) August 11, 2021
It’s all just too much to process.
What is going on?
That’s all I really want to know.