Two Canadians Detained in China Indicted on Espionage Charges
Cases of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, first detained over 18 months ago, are seen as retribution for Canada’s arrest of a Huawei executive
HONG KONG—Chinese prosecutors have formally indicted two Canadian citizens on espionage charges, more than 18 months after the men were first detained, advancing a pair of cases widely seen as retribution for Canada’s arrest of a well-connected Chinese Huawei executive.
Michael Kovrig, a researcher and former Canadian diplomat, was accused of “probing into state secrets and intelligence” on behalf of foreign actors, while entrepreneur Michael Spavor was accused of “probing into and illegally providing state secrets” to foreign actors, according to separate announcements issued Friday by municipal prosecutors’ offices in Beijing and the northeastern city of Dandong.
Neither office identified the alleged foreign actors.
Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor were first detained on the same day in December 2018 by state-security officials from Beijing and Dandong, respectively. The allegations against the two men can carry heavy prison sentences.
Neither of them could be reached for comment, and it wasn’t known whether they have legal representation. The Canadian Embassy in Beijing referred a request for comment to Ottawa.
Chinese officials haven’t formally linked the two Canadians’ cases. A March 2019 report published on the news website of the Communist Party’s law-enforcement commission accused Mr. Spavor of being an important contact who supplied intelligence to Mr. Kovrig, citing unnamed government agencies.
Legal experts and the two men’s backers have accused China of detaining them to retaliate against Canada’s decision to arrest Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. and its founder’s daughter.
Ms. Meng’s arrest in December 2018—made at Washington’s request—has embroiled Canada in a broader diplomatic row between the U.S. and China. Shortly after her arrest, a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official threatened Canada with “severe consequences,” and Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor were detained days later.
U.S. prosecutors have alleged that Ms. Meng took part in bank fraud to circumvent American sanctions against Iran. She has denied the charges and is out on bail in Vancouver awaiting extradition proceedings. Her lawyers told a Canadian court this week that the U.S. has wrongly accused her of lying to banks about the Chinese company’s business ties to Iran.
Washington has mounted a multifront campaign depicting Huawei as a security risk, telling allied and friendly governments that its networking equipment will enable Chinese government espionage. Huawei has said it has never spied on others or been asked to.
Ms. Meng lost an important legal battle last month when a British Columbia judge ruled that the U.S. had met a test to extradite her to the U.S. The judge has agreed to other hearings in the coming months to consider Ms. Meng’s claim that she was unlawfully searched and interrogated before her 2018 arrest at the airport.
Since their detention, Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor have been held in solitary confinement and subjected to frequent interrogations, according to people familiar with their cases. Each man had been allowed regular visits from Canadian consular officials, though those have been suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor have each worked in China for several years and share an interest in North Korea. A person who knows both men has said they were acquainted with each other.
Mr. Kovrig, a Mandarin speaker, was on leave from Canada’s diplomatic service and was working as an analyst with monitoring group International Crisis Group. Based in Hong Kong and traveling frequently to China, he was researching North Korean affairs and drafting a report on that country when he was detained, his friends say.
Mr. Spavor led academic, tourist and business delegations on visits to North Korea through his nonprofit Paektu Cultural Exchange. A fluent Korean speaker, he had traveled with Dennis Rodman, the retired American basketball player, to Pyongyang, where they met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.