Release of the Michaels ‘the beginning of a new phase of Canada-China relations’: TRU professor

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops expert on East Asian politics says the end of Meng Wanzhou’s detention in Canada and the corresponding release of two Canadians in China represent the beginning of a new phase of Canada-China relations.

Meng, the chief financial officer for Chinese tech giant Huawei, reached a plea agreement on U.S. charges Friday (Sept. 24). The deal allowed Canada to release her from her nearly three-year detention in Vancouver.

Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were arrested in China a short time after Meng’s detention began in 2018. Though they were charged with espionage, their arrests were widely understood to be retaliatory. The two were released Friday and arrived at Calgary International Airport Saturday, greeted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Global Affairs Minister Marc Garneau.

“I don’t think any of us saw the Michaels being released so quickly,” Dr. Robert Hanlon told CFJC Today Saturday. Hanlon is an associate professor of politics at Thompson Rivers University, with a specialty in China and East Asia. “It was quite stunning to see how fast China moved on that front.”

Hanlon says the two Canadians’ release puts to rest any notion that their arrests were not made in retaliation for Meng’s detention at the behest of the U.S.

“It also confirms to us that Canada needs a whole rethink of its China strategy and what it means to have a Canadian foreign policy in Asia at a time of these increasing tensions between the United States and China,” he said.

Since taking office in January, U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to mend relations with China, some of which were damaged by the previous Trump administration.

While this is important, Hanlon argues Canada must not define its relationship with China solely as a corollary of how the two world superpowers are engaging.

“As we see a change in the U.S.-China relationship, we’re also seeing some room for Canada to move as well in developing our own strategy,” said Hanlon. “But we do have to think of ourselves independently and we can’t forget that we are very vulnerable to great power competitions.”

Having said that, Hanlon says it’s unclear how much pull Canada had in effecting the resolution that emerged Friday night. He notes the standoff with China has dominated Canada’s diplomatic strategy sessions since it began.

“It’s something that has permeated throughout Canadian society,” he said. “There has been a range of government levels of actors working behind the scenes since this began. We’re unclear on the level of the relationship recently and that might not come out for some time.”

Clearly, Canada does not want to be involved in so-called ‘hostage diplomacy’, and will have to stickhandle around that potential in the future.

“It’s certainly the beginning of a new conversation that needs to happen — a hard conversation that’s going to require Canadians to look in the mirror quite carefully [and determine] what we want in terms of a relationship with a government that does seize Canadians [as part of] negotiations,” said Hanlon.