As of Tuesday, Canadian nationals - former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor - have been in Chinese detention for over 600 days on espionage charges. Ottawa, however, has maintained that the detentions are retaliatory measures for Canada’s detention of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who was detained in Vancouver in 2018 at the request of the United States. The conversation also concerned the four Canadian nationals who have been sentenced to death in China since 2018.
"Minister Champagne again reiterated that the cases of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor remain a top priority for the Government of Canada and that Canada continues to call on China to immediately release both men and grant clemency to all Canadians facing the death penalty in China," the readout said on Tuesday.
The two foreign ministers also discussed a "number of areas of disagreement" and the ongoing fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, according to the readout.
The meeting comes amid a growing diplomatic rift between the two nations. Apart from the detentions, the relationship has been further exacerbated by Canada’s condemnation of the newly enacted Chinese law on national security in Hong Kong and a suspension of some bilateral agreements with the special administrative region. Beijing has said that it reserves the right to respond to any interference on Canada’s part, and the Canadian side will be held accountable for all the consequences.
Meng is wanted by the US authorities for her alleged role in violating sanctions against Iran.
Both countries have the condemned the detentions as political in nature. Both Beijing and Ottawa have said that their judicial systems are independent and denied claims the cases were politically motivated.
