China: Two Canadians Need International Diplomacy on Trial – Comment

Top diplomats from China and the US met last week to talk to each other after years of hostility. In fact, he first put forward his broad ideas about freedom and justice.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony blink said America Advocate a world order in which all follow the same rules «. Otherwise the law of the fittest applies and the world will become “violent”. What in china Xinjiang, in Hogcog And in Taiwan America is very worried.

Blinken should save “indulgence”, replied Yang Jiechi, China’s chief diplomat. ” America Do not represent the world. You only represent the government of the United States. “China” stands for the values ​​of humanity: peace, development, fairness, justice, freedom and democracy “.

Fairness, Freedom and Democracy

The US has had a difficult time as an advocate for the “rules-based international order” to which Antony Blinken spoke. An international law that the Iraq War (also for) Joe Biden Agreed), prison camp Guantanamo And which would legitimize US drone strikes in the Middle East, has not yet been written. “We’re not right,” Blinken put it in Alaska, “we make mistakes.”

Which questions what modern China is good at as an advocate of justice and freedom.

A man accused of violating China’s national security law was on trial in Beijing on Monday: Michael koverig, A former Canadian diplomat, remained in a Chinese prison for more than two years. This process lasted for several hours and the decision is coming later.

China had a Canadian business on Thursday. Michael spur Brought to justice. Like the covariate, no diplomat was allowed to accompany him. Beijing does not say what the two are accused of. It is believed to be about espionage.

“according to the law”

What would happen if any country in the world tried a Chinese citizen, possibly even a former diplomat, in such a situation? Will China be satisfied with the claim that everything was “according to the law” – as announced by the Chinese Foreign Ministry?

In fact, i Canada A Chinese citizen in court: Meng WenzhouFormer chief financial officer of network equipment company Huawei. She was in transition in Vancouver at the end of 2018 Was arrestedExtradition request from US judiciary that she is doing illegal business Iran Let’s accuse. Ms. Meng is not in jail, but must wear ankle shackles for the duration of her trial. Beijing calls it a “violation of human rights”.

Kowrig and Spoyer were arrested in China just a few days after Meng’s arrest in Canada. Beijing denies that the cases have nothing to do with each other, but it is clear to any observer: Mavre’s release is held completely innocent by hostage, with Meng’s release To be blackmailed.

The two men do not wear ankle cuffs and cannot attend a concert or painting class as Ms. Meng. You have been in exile for the last two years. When Kovrag was given permission to speak to a diplomat for the first time in months in October, he was stunned to hear that an epidemic had broken out.

This should be kept in mind when Chinese diplomats speak of “fairness, justice and freedom”. China kills many of its citizens even more harshly, especially the Muslim Uygar minority, but hundreds of human rights activists and critics of the regime, some of whom have been behind bars for life.

Diplomacy and hypocrisy

But the case of “two michaels” is a particularly clear example of the hypocrisy of Chinese diplomacy. The more prosperous and powerful a country becomes, the more ruthlessly it ignores the rules it promotes on international forums. Beijing has no reason to complain about America being “indulgent”. It is self-indulgent.

And no country, any government, should have any illusion: If Ms. Meng had not traveled through Vancouver, but a European airport in 2018, two Europeans could be held hostage in China today. In Meng’s case he had little connection with Kovrig and Spoer, but his fate depended as much on the solution as the two Canadians.

In February, more than 50 countries signed a statement condemning China’s arbitrary arrest of foreigners for political purposes. On Monday, 26 embassies, including a German one, sent representatives to court to show their solidarity. The Canadian envoy in Beijing thanked him. One wonders where diplomats from the other 149 embassies have gone.