FRANK GIUSTRA

OPINION

The Chinese government needs friends – people who are a lot like the Canadians it has detained

CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 24, 2018

UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO

Canadian businessman Frank Giustra is a global philanthropist and a trustee and supporter of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Anyone watching the news about my fellow Canadians – researcher Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, held against their will in China – would be justified in having second thoughts about working in the country.

It has now been two weeks since China’s state security whisked the two away to undisclosed locations. Neither one has been allowed to see a lawyer or a loved one. According to press reports, both are being subjected daily to several lengthy interrogations and kept in permanently lit cells, an inexcusable form of pressure.

Mr. Kovrig works for the International Crisis Group, a conflict-prevention organization that I have proudly supported for years. I am baffled by the allegations Chinese officials make against him – that he is somehow “endangering China’s national security”. Mr. Kovrig’s work – as anyone bothering to check it out would know – involves analysis of Chinese engagement with conflict-affected countries where Crisis Group advocates policies that advance peace, an approach congruent with China’s foreign policy. To conduct his research, he meets openly with China’s officials, analysts and academics to understand China’s perspectives on global affairs. His writings are published on Crisis Group’s website for all to see.

He left the Canadian foreign service two years ago to join Crisis Group as its senior advisor for North East Asia because he loves China and wanted to stay there rather than be assigned elsewhere. He speaks Mandarin and is committed to learning about Chinese culture. In his work for Crisis Group, he takes great pains to explain what Chinese foreign policy is about and why China is an important actor in so many places around the world. China needs to embrace friends like Michael – not put them in jail.

The Canadian government believes China is using both Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor as pawns in a geopolitical controversy involving the Chinese corporation Huawei after Canada honoured a U.S. request to detain Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou for possible extradition. She has since been released on bail.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-china-needs-friends-that-are-a-lot-like-the-canadians-it-has-detained/