After Detaining Canadians for 1,000 Days, China Tilts from Spavor to Kovrig in Desperate Bid for Leverage

A young man holds a sign bearing photographs of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have been detained in China for more than a year, outside B.C. Supreme Court where Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was attending a hearing in Vancouver, Canada, on Jan. 21, 2020. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

Commentary

Last week, China’s state-run tabloid Global Times ran an article, based on information from an inside source, which laid out the evidence that stood as the basis for sentencing Canadian national Michael Spavor to 11 years on spying charges in a case linked to Huawei. Spavor’s trial was held in secret. The article caused quite a stir as this is the first time that information on Spavor’s case was “leaked.”