Canada warns China that ‘coercive diplomacy’ won’t secure release of Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou
- Foreign minister Francois-Philippe Champagne pressed Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Canadian detainees during Rome meeting
- Wang, meanwhile, has called on Ottawa to mend relationship with Beijing by freeing Huawei executive arrested in Vancouver
Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Thursday that China’s “coercive diplomacy” to try to gain the release of a Huawei executive fighting extradition to the US will not work.
Champagne said in a conference call after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Rome this week, “I was very clear [with him] that coercive diplomacy is not going to lead to the desired outcome.”
“I told him that arbitrary detention was not conducive to relations between states ever, but certainly [not] now,” he said.
Ties between Ottawa and Beijing began to fray in December 2018 over the arrest of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant during a stopover in Vancouver. She is wanted for alleged bank fraud and violations of US sanctions against Iran, and has been fighting extradition ever since.
Nine days later, China detained two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, on suspicions of espionage.
Canada and its allies have decried their arrests as “arbitrary”. And since January, Ottawa has been pressing for consular access after it was suddenly yanked.