Kovrig, Spavor return home, more than 100 Canadians remain imprisoned in China: Reports

The sources suggest that there are still over 100 Canadians incarcerated in China jails for various reasons after the release of two Canadian nationals, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, detained in China over three years ago, were released. After landing in Calgary, Alberta, early Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hugged diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor on the tarmac. The men were arrested in China in December 2018, shortly after Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer and the company's founder's daughter, was arrested in Canada on a US extradition request.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States joins the international community in applauding Chinese authorities' decision to free Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig after more than two and a half years of arbitrary incarceration. He further said that they are glad that the Canadians are returning to their home.

However, 119 Canadians are currently incarcerated in China for various reasons, according to the National Post. Some have been imprisoned for supposed political or religious "crimes," while others have been imprisoned for drug offences and in the case of Kovrig and Spavor, spying suspicions. According to the Canadian publication, Canadians are being kept in jail, detention centres, or medical facilities in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, citing an official press release. The remark emphasised that this figure also includes only those individuals known who have made their position known to the Government of Canada.

Huseyn Celil, who has been imprisoned for nearly a decade and a half on terrorism charges relating to his Uyghur advocacy and Sun Qian, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for practising Falun Gong, are two of the handful whose identities have been made public.

China-Canada diplomatic war

In recent years, China-Canada relations have been strained, with squabbles over various commodity prohibitions and political feuds over Meng's and Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor's detentions. Most recently, a House of Commons resolution publicly condemning China's actions against the Uyghur minority, as well as a government effort to urge other countries to denounce "hostage diplomacy," ratcheted up the diplomatic war.

(Inputs from ANI)

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