The Second Canadian Has Disappeared, Raising Tensions between Canada-China
Canadian officials have reported that the second Canadian had disappeared in China.
Michael Spavor, a Canadian businessman based in Dandong near the North Korean border, has been missing in China, while the Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland believes that Spavor has been detained by the Chinese government.
Spavor’s disappearance follows the detention in Beijing on Monday of former diplomat Michael Kovrig on “suspicion of engaging in activities that harm China’s state security.”
Canadian officials said that Spavor had contacted them this week to say he was being questioned. Canada is working hard to ascertain Spavor’s whereabouts and will continue to raise the issue with the Chinese government.
Reuters reports that friends of Spavor told the reporter that Spavor was due to fly out of Dalian on a Korean Air flight to South Korea at 2:05 p.m. (0605 GMT) on Monday but had not arrived. Later, phone calls, messages and emails to Spavor went unanswered on Thursday.
All this disappearances and detentions come after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer and Daughter of the founder, at Canadian Airport over the accusation of violating US trade law by selling US products to sanctioned country, Iran. However, Meng had been granted $7.5 million bail by the Canadian Court on Tuesday, December 11, 2018, under 24 hours surveillance and an electronic ankle tag.