Canadian businessman Michael Spavor called his country’s embassy in Beijing from an airport in northeast China. He was questioned by authorities after he was blocked from boarding a flight from China.
Concerns at the embassy over the call turned to alarm when officials learned that another Canadian had been detained in Beijing that day, December 10, 2018, according to people familiar with the case. This time it was former diplomat Michael Kovrig.
Since then, the two men have been pushed into the center of a clash between Canada, the US and China, where they have been detained and charged with espionage. Hopes had been growing among family members and supporters of late that the men could be released if separate talks to settle the criminal charges against Meng Wanzhou, a director of China’s Huawei Technologies Co., are bearing fruit. Canada has accused China of holding the two men in retaliation for Ms. Meng’s arrest on a U.S. extradition request.
Since both sides plunged too far into the demands to bridge, those discussions stalled and are now dormant, according to people familiar with the case. The Biden administration could revisit the talks in the coming months, people said, but the timing of such a move is unclear. A spokesperson for Justice declined to comment.
Vice President Kamala Harris told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a phone call earlier this month that the US would do everything it could to get the two men released.