TORONTO, Dec 24: China encourages Canadian officials to refrain from making irresponsible statements about bilateral relations and the detention by Beijing of two Canadians on the grounds they presented a national security threat, the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said in a statement. “The Chinese side urges the Canadian side to earnestly respect the spirit of rule of law and China’s judicial sovereignty, and refrain from making irresponsible remarks,” the statement said on Monday. The statement reiterated that attempts to bully China on the global stage would be unsuccessful and the two detained Canadians – former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor – presented a national security threat, thus countering Canadian allegations that the two were detained arbitrarily. The statement, renewed calls for the Canadian government to release detained Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who has been placed in detention since last December at the request of the United States in order to be extradited. The embassy statement comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a morning show interview that he had asked the United States to hold off signing any trade deals with China until the situation surrounding the extradition of Meng and the detention of two Canadians has been resolved. Canada has signaled it will form a special committee in the near future to examine Sino-Canadian relations. The decision comes at the behest of the Conservative Party of Canada, which has been particularly critical of Beijing.
China has imposed several bans on Canadian meat products and vegetable oil exports, but lifted some of those restrictions in October. The strained bilateral relations have led Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to downgrade the country’s economic outlook as these and other trade tensions continue to mount and exports fall.
(AGENCIES)
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