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International Campaign Offers Christmas Cheer to Canadians Jailed in China

Natalie Liu

   WASHINGTON - Supporters of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two
   Canadian citizens detained by Chinese authorities since December 2018,
   are joining a campaign to send them "season's greetings" as the two
   prepare to spend a third Christmas behind bars.

   Charles Parton, a former British diplomat who knew Kovrig, a former
   Canadian diplomat, in Beijing, started [1]the "Christmas card"
   campaign. He spoke to VOA from London on what [2]prompted him to launch
   the campaign.

   "I was rereading the book by Anthony Grey, a Reuters correspondent, who
   was [3]imprisoned in 1967 to 1969," said Parton, now a senior associate
   fellow at Britain's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think
   tank focused on international defense and security.

   Parton said he was struck by a passage in Grey's memoir, Hostage in
   Peking, in which the author described how touched he was when he
   learned after his release that several thousand Britons and others had
   sent him Christmas cards while he was under arrest.

References

   1. https://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/freechinahostages-campaign-charles-parton/
   2. https://thechinacollection.org/freechinahostages-campaign-michael-kovrig-michael-spavor/
   3. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/oct/13/from-the-archive-1967-western-journalist-under-arrest-in-china-for-777-days

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