Chinese authorities have prosecuted and tried two Canadians who have been held for two years over accusations linked to a case against a senior Huaweiexecutive in Canada, the Chinese foreign ministry has said. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested in December 2018, days after Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, an executive at the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei.
The Chinese government insists that the arrests were on suspicion of national security violations but Canada has accused the country of conducting hostage diplomacy. At a regular press briefing on Thursday, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, said the men had been “arrested, indicted and tried”. The announcement came two years to the day after the arrest of the two Michaels, as they have become known, and during the week that Meng’s extradition hearing is under way in Canada.
