China indicts two Canadians for spying, escalating dispute over Huawei case

Chinese prosecutors said Friday they would formally bring espionage charges against two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in cases widely seen as retribution for Canada’s role in helping U.S. law enforcement pursue a senior Huawei executive.

The announcement by the Supreme People's Procuratorate almost certainly foreshadows lengthy prison sentences for Spavor, a businessman on the China-North Korea border, and Kovrig, a former diplomat who worked as a researcher in Beijing for the International Crisis Group.

With conviction rates of roughly 99.9%, Chinese prosecutors almost always win in a court system that is controlled by the ruling Communist Party. The two Canadians were arrested in December 2018, days after Canadian authorities detained the Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou during a layover in Vancouver at the behest of the United States, which is seeking her extradition to face fraud charges.

Spavor and Kovrig had been held for more than 550 days without facing charges or receiving permission to see their lawyers, according to Canadian officials. The men had been granted periodic visits in jail by Canadian diplomats, but not since the coronavirus outbreak in January.

Their arrests in 2018, along with Meng's, sparked 18 months of mutual recriminations and accusations of hostage-taking between Beijing and Ottawa. China has made veiled acknowledgments that the seizure of Spavor and Kovrig was tit-for-tat for Meng's arrest; the former ambassador to Ottawa publicly likened it to "self-defense" in response to Canada's detaining Meng.

Chinese prosecutors said Friday they were moving forward with the cases following "examination based on law," crossing a threshold that suggests there is now little chance of the cases being dropped.

The announcement comes three weeks after an Canadian court ruled that Meng's extradition could proceed. At the time, Chinese state media warned Canada against ruling against Meng.

China has fought bitterly for Meng's release, calling her case a politically motivated campaign by the U.S. Justice Department to cripple the technology giant Huawei.

U.S. prosecutors have charged Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, with defrauding four banks to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Rejecting Beijing's pressure campaign last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was clear the Communist Party did not understand the concept of an independent judiciary.

"Canada has an independent judicial system that functions without interference or override by politicians," he said. "China doesn't work quite the same way and doesn't seem to understand that."

The cases of Meng, Spavor and Kovrig exacerbated relations between China and Canada at a time when Beijing has taken a much more muscular stance against U.S. allies in the Five Eyes network that includes Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

Without directly naming China, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday lashed out at a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor” for waging broad cyber attacks against Australia’s government, public utilities, hospitals, political organizations and schools.