Only America can break the deadlock between Canada and China
The incarceration of two Canadians has paralysed relations between the two countries
WHENEVER CANADA’S ambassador to China visits Michael Kovrig virtually in jail, the prisoner gives him a list of books he wants to read next. In January he asked for “The Trial” by Franz Kafka. Like the unhappy hero of that novel, Mr Kovrig, a Canadian former diplomat, has done nothing wrong. Yet he has been stuck in a cell in Beijing for 800 days. The true reason for his ordeal has never been stated openly by Chinese authorities. His fate, and that of another Canadian, Michael Spavor, depends on a case neither man had anything to do with: the detention in Canada of a Chinese businesswoman, Meng Wanzhou.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Hostage diplomacy”
From the March 13th 2021 edition
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