Envoys visit Canadian imprisoned in China

Canadian diplomats visited detained entrepreneur Michael Spavor on Tuesday, their second meeting since he was arrested in China last month for allegedly endangering national security.

They are providing services to Spavor and his family and will seek further access to him, Global Affairs said.

The department is also trying to arrange another meeting with Michael Kovrig, himself a diplomat on leave from Global Affairs, who was similarly arrested by the Chinese on national-security grounds in December and has met just once with Canadian representatives.

The Opposition Conservatives lamented the lack of regular consular access to the detained men and urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to personally call Chinese President Xi Jinping to express concern.

Kovrig served as a diplomat in China until 2016 and had been working for the International Crisis Group, a non-governmental agency. Spavor is director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, an organization that facilitates sporting, cultural, tourism and business exchanges with North Korea.

The detentions of Spavor and Kovrig came shortly after Canadian authorities in Vancouver arrested Meng Wanzhou, a senior executive with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies, who is wanted by the U.S. on fraud charges.

Meng’s arrest angered Beijing, and many analysts see China’s detention of Spavor and Kovrig as retaliation.

Global Affairs said Tuesday it remains deeply concerned by the arbitrary detention of the two Canadians and reiterated a call for their immediate release.