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’s Targeting of Filipino Chinese for Intelligence, Influence and Drug Trafficking

By Anders Corr, Ph.D.

Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte (L), son of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and the president’s son-in-law, Manases Carpio (R), take an oath as they attend a senate hearing in Manila on September 7, 2017. Paolo Duterte and Manases Carpio appeared before the inquiry to deny as “baseless” and “hearsay” allegations linking them to large-scale illegal drugs smuggling. 

On June 12, Philippine protesters staged coordinated protests against China in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver. 

Protest organizer Ago Pedalizo said, “Duterte’s government pursues the ‘sell, sell, sell’ approach to sovereignty as a trade-off to all kickbacks he’ll get from the ‘build, build, build’ economic push of China.” 

His protest group, Filipino American Human Rights Advocates (FAHRA), charged that “Duterte is beholden to the $15-billion loan with monstrous interest rate and China’s investments in Boracay and Marawi, at the expense of Philippine sovereignty. This is not to mention that China remains to be the premier supplier of illegal drugs to the country through traders that include the son, Paolo Duterte, with his P6 billion shabu [methamphetamine] shipment to Davao.”
Paolo Duterte has denied the allegations. 

Philippine and Chinese government offices did not reply to requests for comment.
But, experts have confirmed that kickbacks and drug shipments come through Filipino Chinese networks. 

Current Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte himself has self-identified as Chinese in the course of affirming his sincerity to an accommodating position on the South China Sea conflict. 

He said this to a correspondent on CCTV, a Chinese state television network.
Asked about Duterte and influential Special Assistant to the President Mr. Bong Go, one expert replied, “Duterte has been given money by the Chinese as early as when he was mayor [of Davao City, Mindanao]. The Chinese will not give it to him directly, but through the Filipino Chinese. Bong Go is a Filipino Chinese.”
Another source with knowledge of elite networks in the Philippines confirmed that Chinese intelligence services focus on Filipinos of Chinese ancestry in their attempts to infiltrate the Philippines, including Mr. Bong Go and other Filipino Chinese in Duterte’s inner circle. 

He added that some Chinese networks in the Philippines specialize in the illegal drug trade and business more generally, and serve a dual intelligence function. 

He said that China currently has “unprecedented access” to Duterte.
Chinese state targeting of overseas Chinese for intelligence, drugs and influence operations is well documented in a growing field of study on Chinese influence operations globally. 

The contemporary literature has been developed by an impressive number of scholars and journalists, including Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Anne-Marie Brady, Kerry Brown, Kevin Carrico, J. Michael Cole, John Garnaut, Bill Gertz, Gerry Groot, Clive Hamilton, Alex Joske, Shanthi Kalathil, Peter Mattis, Jonas Parello-Plesner, Josh Rogin, Mark Stokes, Glenn Tiffert, and James To. 

A comedian, Chris Chappell, is even covering the issue and making it accessible beyond audiences for relatively dry scholarship and foreign policy analysis.
Ethnicities other than Chinese are also targeted, of course, but Chinese authorities single out those of their own ethnicity, putting them into particular danger. 

This is arguably a racist or discriminatory practice by China’s intelligence services, which victimizes and endangers overseas Chinese. 

A former attaché in the United States’ embassy in Beijing, for example, explained that China’s intelligence services target those of Chinese ancestry who work in foreign missions. 
“Ethnic Chinese serving in Western embassies in China bear special risks. Chinese intelligence services vigorously target them for compromise. The CCP treats them like race-traitors when they aren’t compromised, and their American countrymen are sometimes insensitive to the pressure they are under. I’ve known ethnic Chinese Americans that finished their service in China embittered by the experience.”

Another former attaché, this one defense attaché in the U.S. embassy in Bangkok, wrote that China’s strategy of targeting those of Chinese ancestry extends back decades. 

“Targeting the diaspora has long been the practice,” he said.
“In the 1980’s, when ethnic Chinese were still a rarity in the foreign service, it was the ethnic Chinese wives who were targeted. I know of a case of an American official in the Embassy in Thailand who had an ethnic Chinese-Thai wife, and he was being induced through his wife, who was dangled with tempting business propositions and offers of cash.”
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, tasked with assisting counterintelligence at U.S. embassies abroad, declined to comment.
Four sources of information in this article asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on the subject, or because they feared reprisals.