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Canada gets consular access to citizens detained in China

Canada gets consular access to citizens detained in China

Justin Trudeau

Canada has finaly been able to make contact with two of its citizens who were detained by the Chinese authorities in January.

The Canadian authorities have been seeking consular access for these two citizens for the past few months. Canada's Foreign Affairs Ministryhas described these detainments to be"arbitrary detention" in China.

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The department, on Sunday, reported that Canada's ambassador to ChinaDominic Barton gained"virtual consular access" to the two citizens onFriday and Saturday —Michael Spavor on Friday,Michael Kovrig on Saturday.

Two of them have been in detained in China since December 2018 on the charge of espionage, which was applied in June 2019. Kovrig is a former diplomat and Spavor was a consultant.

Canada believes that the two citizens were detained as a retaliation for Canada detaining Chinese company Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou. She was arrested in 2018 on a US warrant for the charges of bank fraudrelated to violations of US sanctions against Iran.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with Donald Trump on Saturday and thanked the US president for Washington's continued support of efforts to free the two Canadians.