China’s new inscrutability

DARTMOUTH, N.S.—“Inscrutable” was how we saw the Chinese. But the arrest and incarceration of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor (a.k.a.—The Two Michaels) have revised our perspective: we now see the Chinese government as ruthless, stiff-necked, and callous. The Chinese government’s continuing action against The Two Michaels is in retribution for Meng Wanzhou’s Dec. 1, 2018, arrest and detention at the Vancouver International Airport. Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the multinational tech giant Huawei Technologies, China's largest privately held company, was held or detained at the behest of the U.S. Department of Justice. China arrested The Two Michaels on Dec. 10. Kovrig is detained in a Beijing prison and Spavor in Dandong, near the North Korean border. U.S. prosecutors believe Meng covertly attempted to have Huawei-linked companies sell equipment to Iran, in contravention of U.S. sanctions. Maclean’s journalist Shannon Proudfoot wrote that Meng is “a figure of towering symbolic importance to China,” which skyrocketed the issue to the top of both the Chinese and Canadian foreign policy agendas. The affair has left a widening swath of victims in its wake: Jan. 23, 2019. John McCallum, Canada’s ambassador to China, opined to Chinese-language media that Huawei can make a good case against extradition, thanks in part to Trump’s comments that he would intervene if it resulted in a better trade deal with China. Three days later, McCallum became the first Canadian ambassador to be fired. “Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallum’s resignation as Canada’s ambassador to China,” Mr. Trudeau announced on Jan. 26, 2019. On Feb. 4, 2019, Chinese customs began delaying Canadian canola shipments; on April 29, Chinese authorities left Canadian farm exports sitting at their Chinese ports of entry. Meng’s extradition process is not simple. Initially, the Department of Justice determined that if the basic requirements were met before proceeding with the extradition hearing. The judicial phase, the second step, is where Meng Wanzhou is currently arguing her case. The ministerial stage is the final stage of the process, where the minister of justice allows or denies the extradition request. Then-foreign affairs minister François-Philippe Champagne marked Dec. 10, 2020, as the second anniversary of China’s arbitrary detention. Two years, he said, “stolen from Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor, their families and loved ones.” The Two Michaels, remain “an absolute priority for our government,” and he expressed gratitude “to the many countries around the world that have expressed support for Canada and for Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor.” This was undoubtedly in Champagne’s handover notes to incoming Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau, pictured March 16, 2020, at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade These sentiments, comments, and clichés and two bucks can get a cup of coffee. The hard, cold reality is that Canada, a middle power facing the Middle Kingdom, remains powerless in the face of Chinese intransigence. The situation is different when a superpower is confronting a less powerful errant entity. When members of Hezbollah’s Islamic Liberation Organization abducted four Russian diplomats on Sept. 20, 1985, their government reportedly deployed the KGB’s Alpha Group to deal with the situation. The Alpha Group was formed in the aftermath of the Black September terrorist event at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The terrorists attempted to leverage the possible execution of their captives to compel Moscow to force the pro-Syrian militia to stop shelling the pro-Iranian militia positions in Tripoli. Soviet efforts to negotiate the hostages’ release abruptly ended with the execution of a Russian captive. The hostages’ release followed within weeks of the Alpha Group’s deployment. As good as Canada’s JTF2 is, this is not a card that we can play. Nor, we are told, is it wise to yield to China’s version of realpolitik. We must simply wait it out and continue our discussion, debate and deliberation as the Chinese either ignore, condescend, or eviscerate our efforts to free Kovrig and Spavor. The new China has forgotten the hands of friendship extended by Dr. Norman Bethune and prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. But as China exercises its new form of inscrutability, we should concurrently develop a long memory, seek other markets for our goods and products, and work with our friends and allies to educate China about transnational civility. Or we need someone to write the Canadian version of George Kennan’s Long Telegram. Tim Dunne is a retired Canadian military public affairs officer whose service includes peacekeeping missions in the Middle East and the Balkans, and assignments in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He was NATO’s chief of media operations at the Alliance’s southern European headquarters in Naples, Italy, from 2000 to 2004. He is an adjunct professor of communication studies at Mount Saint Vincent University and a defence and security writer, specializing in military justice issues. The Hill Times