US to help free Canadian detainees amid Huawei extradition row, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says
- Tensions among the three countries rise with Sabrina Meng Wanzhou’s arrest in Vancouver, at the US’ request
- ‘We ask all nations of the world to treat other citizens properly,’ Pompeo says after detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor
The United States will help achieve the release of two Canadian nationals detained in China as tensions among the three countries rise amid the arrest – at the US’ request – of Huawei CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.
Calling the Canadians’ arrests unlawful, Pompeo said: “We ask all nations of the world to treat other citizens properly, and the detention of these two Canadian citizens in China ought to end.”
Meng was arrested at the US’ behest on December 1 over allegations she committed financial fraud with the aim of skirting US sanctions on sales to Iran. Chinese authorities seized the two Canadians this week for allegedly “endangering national security”.
One, former diplomat Michael Kovrig, was held on Monday night by Beijing’s state security bureau. In the days since his arrest, the foreign ministry has said Kovrig, now a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, might have also broken China’s NGO law if he did work for the group while in the country.
On Thursday, authorities confirmed that a second Canadian national, businessman Michael Spavor, had been detained by Liaoning’s provincial state security bureau.