China today confirmed it has arrested a second Canadian, a businessman who has met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
Entrepreneur Michael Spavor and former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig were taken into custody on Monday, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.
Lu said Canada has been informed of the detentions, but declined to say whether the men have been provided with lawyers. He said they are being handled separately.
The two cases ratchet up pressure on Canada, which is holding an executive of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei wanted by the United States.
Canadian businessman Michael Spavor was pronounced missing in China on Wednesday after he was questioned by local authorities. China has announced he was detained on Monday
Spavor is the director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, a company that brings tourists and athletes to North Korea and is one of the few Westerners to have met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
China has demanded the immediate release of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO and the daughter of its founder.
Asked if detentions were related to Meng’s arrest, Lu said they were being handled according to Chinese law.
Michael Spavor had been declared missing after he alerted the Canadian government he was being taken in for questioning in China earlier this week.
Spavor is the director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, a company that brings tourists and athletes to North Korea. He helped arrange a visit to North Korea where former NBA player Dennis Rodman met Kim Jong-Un in 2017.
Global Affairs Canada confirmed that Spavor was missing in a statement on Wednesday evening.
He was due to be in Seoul, South Korea on Monday but never showed up. He told Canadian authorities he was summoned for questioning in China and hasn’t been heard from since. Spavor pictured above with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un
He helped arrange a visit to North Korea by former NBA player Dennis Rodman (pictured left)
His disappearance comes just two days after former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was detained in China on Monday December 10.
He was arrested on suspicion of engaging in ‘activities that harmed China’s national security’, according to Chinese media.
‘Canada is deeply concerned about the detention of Mr. Kovrig and Canada has raised the case directly with Chinese officials,’ Foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said after his arrest.
After Kovrig was detained, Spavor contacted the Canadian government saying he was summoned for questioning. He’s believed to have been missing since Monday as well.
He reportedly knows Kovrig, according to The Globe and Mail.
His disappearance comes just two days after former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was detained in China on Monday. Kovrig and Spavor reportedly know each other
Spavor lives in China but works closely with North and South Korea. He was due to arrive to Seoul, South Korea on Monday but never showed up, according to CTV News.
It comes less than two weeks after Meng Wanzhou, the chief executive of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver on December 1, at the request of the United States for possible extradition.
Wanzhou was arrested on U.S. claims that she used a Hong Kong shell company to do business with Iran, violating U.S. sanctions.
Meng was released on Tuesday after posting $10million bail but she is still confined to Vancouver and nearby suburbs and must wear a GPS tracker.
The Canadian government has not said if the detainment of Kovrig and Spavor are acts of retaliation by the Chinese government following Wanzhou’s arrest.
Friends and experts say Kovrig may have become a ‘hostage’ and ‘pawn’ in a three-nation feud, according to AFP.
Kovrig and Spavor’s detainment follow the arrest of prominent Chinese businesswoman Meng Wanzhou, 46, in Vancouver, Canada on December 1. Wanzhou was arrested on U.S. claims that she used a Hong Kong shell company to do business with Iran, violating U.S. sanctions
Meng was released on Tuesday after posting $10million bail but she is still confined to Vancouver and nearby suburbs and must where a GPS tracker. Pictured above arriving to the parole office with a security guard in Vancouver
According to Canada’s former ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques, ‘In China there are no coincidences’.
‘In this case it is clear the Chinese government wants to put maximum pressure on the Canadian government,’ he said to Canadian Broadcasing Corporation on Tuesday when asked about Kovrig’s arrest that shortly followed Wanzhou’s.
After Wanzhou was arrested, China threatened severe consequences to Canada.
Analysts predicted that retaliation for the arrest was likely.
The tensions between Canada and China come as the U.S. and China make trade talks this week.
The president said he’d wade into the case of Wanzhou if it would help produce a trade agreement with China.