Canada vs. thuggish China

Trudeau accuses China of using arbitrary detentions for political ends: ‘This is not acceptable in the international community’

The Guardian

Canada’s relations with China soured after its arrest of Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant last December. 

Justin Trudeau has accused Beijing of using arbitrary detentions as a tool in pursuit of political goals in the latest broadside in a diplomatic and trade row with China.

“Using arbitrary detention as a tool to achieve political goals, international or domestic, is something that is of concern not just to Canada but to all our allies,” Trudeau told the Toronto Star editorial board.
He said nations including Britain, France, Germany and the United States “have been highlighting that this is not acceptable behaviour in the international community because they are all worried about China engaging in the same kinds of pressure tactics with them”.
Canada’s relations with China soured after its arrest of Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant last December.
Nine days later, Beijing detained two Canadians – former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor – and accused them of espionage as retaliation.
Trudeau added that “we need to figure out how to engage with them, but we also have to be clear-eyed about it, that China plays by a very different set of rules and principles than we do in the west”.
His comments may further inflame tensions between the two countries, which had appeared to be trying to move on from the row. 

This week both Beijing and Ottawa nominated new ambassadors.

The previous Canadian ambassador John McCallum was fired in January after he said it would be “great” if the US dropped its extradition request for the Huawei executive. 

She is wanted by the US on fraud charges and is currently out on bail in Vancouver and living in her multi-million dollar home awaiting extradition proceedings.

US: Death sentence to Canadian in China politically motivated

The arbitrary detentions of Canadians are not just about Canada -- they represent a way of behaving which is a threat to all countries

AP
Canada's Foreign Minister Freeland (L) and US Secretary of State Pompeo and at a news conference in Washington in December 2018.

The United States State Department has called the sudden move to award the death sentence to a Canadian man by a Chinese court in a drug trafficking case "politically motivated".
In a statement on Wednesday, deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland had spoken the previous day and "expressed their concerns about the arbitrary detentions and politically motivated sentencing of Canadian nationals".
The Chinese court has sentenced Robert Schellenberg to death in a sudden retrial in the drug smuggling case on Monday, after giving him a 15-year jail term in 2016.
Freeland and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have been talking to world leaders about Schellenberg's case as well as those of two other Canadians arrested in China in retaliation against the December arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
Canada had arrested the daughter of Huawei's founder at the request of the US, which wants her extradited to face charges related to the company's business dealings in Iran. 

Palladino said Meng's case was also discussed.
"They noted their continued commitment to Canada's conduct of a fair, unbiased, and transparent legal proceeding," the statement said.

China defiant
Canada has embarked on a campaign with allies to win the release of former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, who were arrested on vague allegations of "engaging in activities that endanger the national security" of China 10 days after Meng's arrest.
"Led by the prime minister, our government has been energetically reaching out to our allies and explaining that the arbitrary detentions of Canadians are not just about Canada -- they represent a way of behaving which is a threat to all countries," Freeland said.
She added that the arrested Canadians would be at the top of her agenda when she visits Davos for the World Economic Forum next week.

Earlier on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying mocked "actually, you can count by the fingers of your hand the few allies of Canada that chose to side with it on this issue." 

Asked about Hua's comments, Freeland said: "I would just point to the fact that the EU alone, which has issued a statement, is a union of 28 countries."

Unlawful arrests
The United Kingdom, Australia and other countries have also issued statements backing Canada.
The White House, meanwhile, called the arrests "unlawful" in a statement after Trudeau called Donald Trump last week, but the US president has not talked directly about the arrested Canadians.
Bruce Heyman, a former US ambassador to Canada, said Washington and other allies need to take a stronger public stance supporting Canada.
"A statement is a statement, but it only has strength in value if there are consequences for behaviour," Heyman told The Associated Press news agency. 

"A threat to Canadians is a threat to the United States. That's what's missing here. That's what you do with allies and your best friend. Canada has always been there for the United States in a time of need."
Heyman argued that a lack of leadership from the Trump administration has empowered countries like China and Canada is suffering the consequences.
"We are seeing behaviours around the world by countries who feel that they have a licence to do things because the US is behaving entirely differently," he said. 

"We should be there protecting our allies."

China vs. Islam

Muslim minority in China face forced political indoctrination

Reuters

Police officers check the identity cards of a people as security forces keep watch in a street in Kashgar, East Turkestan, China, March 24, 2017.

BEIJING -- The Turkic mostly Muslim Uighur minority in China’s East Turkestan colony face arbitrary detentions, daily restrictions on religious practice and “forced political indoctrination” in a mass security crackdown, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
The United Nations human rights panel said in August that China is holding up to 1 million ethnic Uighurs in a secretive system of “internment camps” in East Turkestan, where they undergo political education.
Beijing has denied that such camps are for “political education” and says they are instead vocational training centers, part of government initiatives to bolster economic growth and social mobility in the region.
China has said that East Turkestan faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tensions between Uighurs who call the region home and the ethnic Han Chinese.
Uighurs and other Muslims held in the camps are forbidden from using Islamic greetings, must learn Mandarin Chinese and sing propaganda songs, according to a report by Human Rights Watch based on interviews with five former camp detainees.
People in East Turkestan with relatives living abroad in one of 26 “sensitive countries”, including Kazakhstan, Turkey and Indonesia, have been targeted by the authorities and are often held for several months, without any formal procedure.
Punishments for refusing to follow instructions in the camp could mean being denied food, being forced to stand for 24 hours or even solitary confinement, it said.
China foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declined to give a detailed response to the report and said that Human Rights Watch was a group “full of prejudice” against China that distorts facts.
Security conditions in East Turkestan outside the camps had also intensified markedly and now bear “a striking resemblance to those inside”, Hong Kong-based Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang said, based on interviews with 58 former East Turkestan residents now living abroad.
Wang and her team only spoke with people who had left East Turkestan due to a lack of access to the region and to avoid endangering those still living there.
New security measures described by interviewees include proliferating checkpoints that make use of facial recognition technology and sophisticated police monitoring systems, such as each house having a QR code that, when scanned, shows the authorities who the approved occupants are.
Monitoring of Islamic religious practices, such as asking people how often they pray and the closure of mosques, as well as regular visits by party officials to rural parts of East Turkestan, mean that practicing Islam “has effectively been outlawed,” Wang said.