Taking hostages is an old ploy
for resolving disputes in China, yet retaliation over Huawei case has destroyed
ties with Canada
By JONATHAN MANTHORPE
Taking hostages is a
time-honoured way of resolving disputes for the Chinese Communist Party regime,
which fears the rule of law and an independent judiciary.
The CCP has taken this form of
dispute resolution to a highly sophisticated and nuanced level which even
foreigners who do believe in the rule of law and an independent judiciary can
understand.
There is, for example, a
profound difference in the implications of the kidnapping and holding hostage
of Simon Cheng as he returned from Shenzhen to Hong Kong on August 8, and the
kidnapping and holding hostage of the two Canadians Michael Kovrig and
Michael Spavor. They were both spirited away at the beginning of December last
year.
And in a nation without the
rule of law, the use of kidnapping and hostage taking as a method of
conflict resolution extends well beyond the CCP. At any one time there are
dozens if not scores of foreigners being detained in China because their local
business partners claim illegality and have used influence with the local
police and courts to make it stick.
The detained foreigners are
usually ethnic Chinese who have emigrated to Australia, Canada, the United
States, or elsewhere, and whose facility in China is seen as an asset to their
companies.
Usually also, these emigrants
are either foolish enough to use their old People’s Republic of China
nationality documents to travel into China, or they have not taken the
precaution of renouncing their Chinese citizenship. In either case the result
is that PRC officials insist the kidnappings are an entirely internal matter,
and they refuse access to consular officials from the hostage’s new home.
Political kidnapping
Unlike the more common
business hostage-taking, the detention two weeks ago of Simon Cheng, a locally
engaged employee of the British Consulate in Hong Kong, as he returned to the
territory after a day’s business over the border in Shenzen, was clearly a
political kidnapping.
Cheng’s detention came after
the United Kingdom government in London had expressed concerns about the
violent police reaction to peaceful pro-reform demonstrations in Hong Kong, and
a call for Beijing to stick to its promises made before the 1997 handover of
sovereignty.
In the last few days Beijing’s
international English language mouthpiece, Global Times, has reported that
Cheng was detained “for soliciting prostitutes” during his one-day visit to
Shenzhen on August 8.
There are several reasons to
think this story is highly unlikely. Although it is true that prostitution is
rife in Shenzhen and it is near impossible for any businessman to spend any
time in the city without being propositioned, Cheng had a full agenda of business
meetings. His opportunities for an encounter, even if he’d wanted one, are not
immediately obvious.
More than that, most of the
prostitutes in Shenzhen are managed by the local police, to whom the women pay
protection money of one sort or another. If the police had wanted to pick Cheng
up for consorting with prostitutes they didn’t have to wait until he was about
to re-enter Hong Kong.
Yet he messaged his
girlfriend, Annie Li, from the high-speed train saying he was on his way home.
This is interesting because the only Chinese immigration checkpoint on this
line is in West Kowloon Station in Hong Kong.
This suggests that Cheng was
in fact detained in Hong Kong and then whisked back across the border.
In the context of the Hong
Kong demonstrations against attempts by the administration of Chief Executive
Carrie Lam to pass a bill enabling easy extradition of alleged criminals to
China, there is a strong message here. With or without an extradition treaty
with Hong Kong, Beijing is going to grab people it wants to detain.
Canada has been confronting a
similar message since last December when diplomat Michael Kovrig and
businessman Michael Spavor were detained.
They were picked up a few days
after the December 1 detention at Vancouver’s international airport of Meng
Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies and the daughter of
the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei. Meng was detained on an extradition
request by the United States Department of Justice, which alleges she lied to
international banks in the process of trying to circumvent Washington’s
sanctions against Iran.
Protecting their red princess
The kidnapping of the two
Michaels is a lesson in how passionate the CCP is in protecting its red princes
and princesses.
Not only have the two Michaels
been held for nine months, and allowed only one visit a month by Canadian
consular officials, they are also being tortured. As a result of those
infrequent visits it is known that the two Michaels are being tortured by sleep
deprivation and are being subjected to hours of interrogation every day. Both
have now been charged with espionage and endangering the security of the
People’s Republic of China.
Princess Meng, in contrast is
only under nighttime house arrest at one of her several Vancouver mansions. She
seems to spend most days shopping. Her case is running the course of Canada’s
independent judicial system, and she has a team of crack lawyers arguing her
plea for the extradition to be rejected. As things stand, the case will
probably be decided early next year.
However, Donald Trump, who has
as little respect for the rule of law as does the CCP, has mused about dropping
the charges against Meng as part of the resolution of his trade war with
Beijing.
The Canadian government has
been subjected to considerable pressure to release Meng from the CCP’s agents
of influence in Canadian political and business circles. Beijing’s agents have
included Ottawa’s former ambassador to the PRC, John McCallum, and even former
Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
But to its credit the
government of Justin Trudeau has stood firm and refused to interfere in the
judicial process.
However, whatever happens to
Meng, the fate of the two Michaels is unlikely to be as predictable or
pleasant, even if she is sent to the US.
Televised confessions next?
If past actions of the CCP are
any guide, the purpose of torturing the two Michaels is to prepare them for
staged, televised confessions that they endangered the security of the PRC.
They will then be subjected to a choreographed courtroom drama where the
outcome, the conviction and the sentencing are already determined.
They will then be locked away
until some CCP leader thinks that Ottawa has shown enough contrition and
subservience to Beijing for them to be released. Or, as in the case of
Australian businessman James Peng, a Beijing leader wishes to demonstrate his
merciful nature.
Peng was kidnapped by CCP
agents from Macau, then still Portuguese territory, in 1993 after falling out
with his business partner, another Red Princess, Ping Deng, the niece of
paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
Peng was sentenced to 18 years
in prison for “misappropriation,” but was released as an act of generosity in
1999 when then CCP leader Jiang Zemin visited Australia.
US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo was in Ottawa at the end of this week. One of the matters pressed on him
by Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, was help in pushing Beijing to
release the two Michaels.
It would be splendid if that
produced results, but given the evident mental instability of the Trump regime,
it is unlikely.
Anger in Canada
In the meantime, the
kidnapping of the two Michaels is the cause of widespread public anger in
Canada. This is exacerbated by events in Hong Kong, where there are usually
about 300,000 Canadian citizens living and working. And in Canada there is a
large and strong contingent of supporters of Hong Kong democracy among the 1.5
million Canadians of ethnic Chinese heritage.
Canadian business people with
long histories of partnerships in China are being cautious and refusing to go
there for fear of being taken hostage.
Many senior Canadian
officials, especially those with any level of security clearance, have been
instructed not to go to China, or even Hong Kong.
The situation is forcing
Canadian political leaders of all parties to realise that their future policy
towards China can never be as close as it was in the past. It will have to be
based on a minimalist view of the benefits of the bilateral relationship.
And Canadian leaders are
looking to enhance relationships with other Asian nations with which Canada does
share political, civil, legal, international and security values, such as
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and,
potentially, others.
So at some point, the CCP will
have to judge whether the excessive defence of one Red Princess is worth the
fallout. But for the moment nothing will change because the CCP knows
acceptance of the rule of law would be the end of the one-party state.
Late note: US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the United States was working to
secure the release of two Canadians held by China.
Pompeo described the detention
of Kovrig and Spavor as “arbitrary and unacceptable” after he met with
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian officials.
“Please note that our team is
focused on helping those two Canadians be released,” Pompeo told
Trudeau. “We’re working on it diligently. It’s wrong that they are being
held.”
With reporting by AFP
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