China confirmed on Monday that a Canadian has been detained on suspicion of drug offences in the east coast city of Yantai. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Monday said authorities in the Shandong province city had contacted the Canadian embassy and arranged for consular visits. Geng added that the case was not related to the detention of 19 people, including seven foreign language teachers, in Jiangsu province earlier this month. Global Affairs Canada on Saturday said a Canadian citizen had been detained, but did not provide further details. Canada says China has detained another of its citizens Relations between China and Canada nosedived in December after Vancouver police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, on a US arrest warrant. Beijing is demanding her return. After Meng’s arrest, China detained two Canadians – Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – accusing them of involvement in stealing state secrets. China has also sentenced two other Canadians to death for drug trafficking and blocked imports of some Canadian agricultural products. Meanwhile, it emerged that Chinese scientists at a Canadian national laboratory had been placed under investigation and had their security access revoked. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Qiu Xiangguo, her husband Keding Cheng and several Chinese students were under investigation for a possible “policy breach” at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, a virology facility that works with the most deadly pathogens. Qiu is an adjunct professor in the department of medical microbiology at the University of Manitoba, and has won awards for her research in the development of Ebola drugs. Her husband also worked as a biologist at the lab. Qiu is a medical doctor from Tianjin in northern China who came to Canada for graduate studies in 1996. She is still affiliated with the university there and has brought in many students over the years to help with her work. Earlier this month police in Manitoba said they were investigating a possible breach at the National Microbiology Lab, without disclosing who was being investigated. Public health officials said that no employee was under arrest, and there was no risk to public safety, but that the breach was an “administrative matter”, without elaborating further. Qiu received her medical degree from Hebei Medical University in 1985, and began studying in Canada in 1996. She was the co-winner of a national innovation award in 2018, along with fellow researcher Gary Kobinger, for their discovery of an Ebola treatment. Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said: “I don’t think the Chinese or Canadian governments will see the arrest [in Yantai] as retaliation, but many people in both countries, and around the world, may see it that way. “It’s very easy for it to be interpreted [as retaliation] from a Canadian point of view.”
