Quote:
Originally Posted by timun
They were never just "detained in a vacuum", it was purely political. "Hostage diplomacy". Canada detained Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the US, whom had submitted a formal extradition request to Canada alleging Meng violated sanctions against Iran and committed fraud to do so. In direct retaliation the Chinese detained Spavor and Kovrig, and held them indefinitely, until Meng was released from house arrest, the extradition request to the US dropped, and a deferred prosecution agreement reached. As soon as that happened Spavor and Kovrig were released. Classic hostage diplomacy.
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What I mean by detained in a vacuum was that the charges against the Michaels was purported to be fabricated and they were illegally detained, when in reality China's allegations were much closer to the truth.
"Spying on State Secrets or Intelligence for Parties Outside the Territory of China” is the charge on Michael Kovrig. Now Spavor is blaming Kovrig for intelligence gathering causing both to be detained.
Covert intelligence gathering is the literal definition of a spy. It seems their actions were tolerated until China needed a bargaining chip.