Interview, Podcast
The Weekend Intelligence: Black boxes (part one): Michael Kovrig on how he became a political...
- Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was detained by Chinese authorities in Beijing on December 10, 2018, spending 1,019 days in custody.
- Kovrig's detention occurred shortly after the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on December 1, 2018, at the request of US authorities.
- Meng Wanzhou was arrested under a US-Canada extradition treaty on suspicion of misleading banks regarding Huawei's business dealings with Iran.
- A second Canadian, entrepreneur Michael Spavor, was detained simultaneously with Kovrig on the same day in a northern border city.
- Chinese media and officials later characterized the detentions as retaliation for Canada's role in the US arrest of Meng Wanzhou, while Western nations viewed them as political hostages.
- Kovrig spent 1,019 days in a Chinese security facility, during which he was held without public access or transparent legal proceedings.
- Kovrig describes his arrest as a "worst-case scenario" where he was blindfolded, handcuffed, and interrogated in a disempowering chair at a Ministry of Public Security facility.
- During detention, Kovrig was informed via interrogation of his partner's health and the birth of their daughter, though he was physically separated from his family.
- Meng Wanzhou eventually reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice in September 2020, leading to the release of both Michaels.
- Kovrig asserts that Chinese authorities utilized a "selective definition of espionage" to criminalize standard diplomatic and conflict-prevention work, such as analyzing North Korea and the South China Sea.
- Kovrig joined the International Crisis Group in 2017 after his diplomatic posting, motivated by a desire to prevent major conflict in the Pacific amidst rising US-China tensions.
- He notes that the Chinese legal system and urban planning, including large walled compounds, are designed to minimize foreign access and project state power.
- Kovrig observed that even in 2014, Beijing's informal culture was restricted for foreigners, with the state maintaining strict control over information flow and access.
- The case highlighted the difficulty for third-party nations like Canada to maintain neutrality as the US and China intensified their geopolitical rivalry and trade war.
- Kovrig later reflected that he underestimated the "rashness and ruthlessness" of Chinese leadership, expecting retaliation against US entities rather than a Canadian citizen.
- The episode of Kovrig's detention is presented by The Economist's Drum Tower series as a unique lens into the opacity of Xi Jinping's China and its security apparatus.