Canada is threatening to cancel the prime minister’s three-day tour of China if it does not release a Canadian couple it says stole state secrets, reports the Globe and Mail. The two are being detained separately in a Chinese hotel and have not been formally accused.
Kevin and Julia Garratt are Christians who ran a coffee shop in Dandong on China’s border with North Korea. They offered books and activities focussed on Christianity. While there has been a recent crackdown on Christian missionaries working near that border, this kind of activity was not mentioned in the Garratts’ arrest.
Arrests not a coincidence, suggests professor
Rather the statement about their arrest says they stole Chinese defence research secrets. This sounds very similar to criticism Canada made of China for a cyber attack on the National Research Council, Canada’s leading research agency, notes Brock University’s Prof. Charles Burton, a former adviser to the Canadian embassy in Beijing. Chinese officials may have been angered that Canada made such a pointed and public accusation and may have arrested the Garretts in retaliation.
ListenQuiet diplomacy appears to have not worked in the past
Normally Canada would not have made such overt criticism of China, but rather would have worked behind the scenes, says Burton. But quiet diplomacy appears to not have worked in the past. He points out that it was used three years ago after a massive cyber attack on several Canadian government departments including the Treasury Board. This was very disruptive, having forced a lengthy shut-down and scrubbing of several government computer systems. After raising the issue subtly, Canadian officials believed they had assurances that this kind of mass hack would not happen again, but they have been proven wrong.
‘Canada does not have much choice’
Now Canada is taking a more direct approach with the threat to cancel the prime minister’s good will mission to China in November, and to possibly send the foreign minister instead of going himself to the APEC meeting happening around the same time. However, Burton thinks Canada does not have much choice.
“If we don’t respond then it does show a degree of weakness on our part that could lead to more of this kind of thing going on,” he says. “I do think that in the face of this, what you might interpret as bullying, activity of snatching innocent Canadians up and putting them into a non-judicial facility, retaining them without any due process, and possibly engaging in activities that will lead to great suffering on their part, that the Canadian government has to stand up and do what we can to try and indicate that we find this unacceptable.”
Investment agreement might help
Canada has however sent a positive signal by ratifying the controversial Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with China on September 9th, says Burton. It will go into effect on October 1st and is intended to “protect and promote” foreign investment with a system of legally-binding rights and obligations. It was something China had lobbied hard for.
But the time of this writing, that does not appear to have changed the status of Kevin and Julia Garratt still being held in a hotel in Dandong, China.
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