Canada presses China’s foreign minister Wang Yi about detainees, Hong Kong
- Foreign ministers meet in Rome, discussed two Canadians held in China
- The two men previously held face-to-face talks in Japan in November 2019
Canada’s foreign minister has called the release of two citizens detained in China a “top priority” for his country during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Italy.
Relations between Beijing and Ottawa have been increasingly bitter since an executive for Chinese tech giant Huawei was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 and China detained two Canadian nationals in apparent retaliation.
Canadian foreign minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on Tuesday said the cases of former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor “remain a top priority for the Government of Canada”.
He called for their immediate release at a meeting in Rome with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, Ottawa said in a statement.
Kovrig and Spavor were charged with espionage in June, while Beijing has called the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou a political manoeuvre on behalf of the United States, which is seeking her extradition on fraud charges.
China accuses Washington of attempting to curb telecoms firm Huawei’s rise.
Wang said the blame for poor ties lay with Ottawa and urged it to “remove the main obstacles currently affecting the development of China-Canada relations”, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry Wednesday.