A week ago, Beijing responded indignantly to the arrest of a Chinese woman in Canada: Why was Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of high-tech group Huawei , arrested in Vancouver?
In fact, the allegation is completely clear, whether or not it is true: The US Department of Justice accused Ms. Meng of undermining the economic sanctions against Iran and demanding that Canada extradite her. By the way, a court has meanwhile released Ms. Meng on bail , and US President Donald Trump suggests that he will consider this with extradition. Ms. Meng has a quiet Christmas with her family in Vancouver.
Two Canadians in China may not be able to do that. The businessman Michael Spavor and the former diplomat Michael Kovrig have been arrested in China – allegedly because they endanger the „national security“, but in truth, because Beijing makes an example of them: Anyone who fights with the big China, will be punished. Who pays exactly this penalty does not matter. There is already someone. Tit for tat.
Abusing completely bystanders for political power games is a despot tactic. Saddam Hussein , Muammar al-Gaddafi , the dictators of North Korea have done this. The fact that it is now also a state of China’s great culture and economic weight is a scandal – and confirms any prejudice about emerging China: the more powerful it becomes, the more ruthlessly it oversteps norms that it does for its own citizens sues.
At the same time it is a warning: What Beijing does with Canada, it may one day do with France, Britain or Germany. European governments should show solidarity with Ottawa and demand the immediate release of the two Canadians. And Germany’s entrepreneurs in China should be on guard.
