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Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. Photo: Kyodo

Sarcasm is China’s latest weapon in battle with Canada over detainees: ‘I think your foreign minister may be in a hurry’

  • Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says Canada’s foreign minister Chrystia Freeland ‘can’t help speaking without thinking’
  • Hua also said it was understandable that Canada was ‘a little worried’ about detentions of its citizens by Beijing
Canada

China has unveiled sarcasm as the latest weapon in its clash with Canada, whose foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, says Beijing’s detentions of Canadians pose a threat to all countries.

“I think your foreign minister may be in a hurry, and can’t help speaking without thinking,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in response to a question from a Canadian journalist on Wednesday. “What threat has China posed to Canada?”

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland says Beijing’s detentions of Canadians pose a threat to all countries. Photo: AP

Hua said that Canada instead poses a threat to Chinese by detaining a Chinese citizen for “no reason”.

She was referring to the arrest in Vancouver of Chinese telecoms executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.

“It is understandable that Canada is a little worried, but we hope it will avoid speaking freely without thinking because its reputation and image would be badly damaged by such behaviours,” Hua said. “And such remarks cannot help settle the issue, either.”

Meng’s arrest while she was changing planes at Vancouver’s airport on December 1 created a diplomatic rift that has continued to grow. Meng is the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies and the daughter of its founder. She is wanted by the US in relation to an investigation into Iran sanctions violations.

Meng was released on C$10 million (US$7.5 million) bail on December 11 and remains in Vancouver while Washington tries to extradite her.

China detained two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, shortly after her arrest in what Western analysts regard as an attempt to pressure Canada to release her.

“What they are doing is not good for China’s image in the world. It’s not good for the image of corporate China in the world,” said John McCallum, Canada’s ambassador to China.

Oxford University suspends donor ties with tech giant Huawei

On January 3, Canada said that 13 of its citizens had been detained in China since Meng was arrested, but that “at least” eight of those 13 had been released.

Freeland said earlier this week that China’s “arbitrary detentions of Canadians … represent a way of behaving which is a threat to all countries.”

China also sentenced another Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, to death on Monday in a sudden retrial of his drug-smuggling case.

Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, leaves her home while out on bail in Vancouver, Canada, on January 10. Photo: Bloomberg

The US State Department called the death sentence “politically motivated”. Deputy spokesman Robert Palladino on Wednesday said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Freeland spoke Tuesday and “expressed their concerns about the arbitrary detentions and politically motivated sentencing of Canadian nationals”.

Canada has embarked on a campaign with allies to win the release of Kovrig and Spavor, who were arrested on allegations of “engaging in activities that endanger the national security” of China.

US brands China’s death sentence against Canadian ‘politically motivated’

McCallum, the envoy to China, said that Canada has done a great job getting allies to support Canada’s position. But he added, “I really think that’s just the beginning.”

Freeland said the detained Canadians would be at the top of her agenda when she travels to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum next week.

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