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Closed-Door Hearing of Second Canadian Charged with Espionage Begins in China

VOA News

   The espionage trial of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig began
   Monday behind closed doors in a Beijing courtroom.

   Kovrig's trial is being held just three days after another Canadian,
   entrepreneur MichaelSpavor, was put on trial in a closed door hearing
   on espionage charges in the northeastern city of Dandong.

   Both Kovrig andSpavorwere arrested separately in December 2018 days
   after Canadian authorities arrested MengWanzhou, the chief financial
   officer of China's Huawei Technologies, in Vancouver on a U.S. warrant.

   Diplomats from several nations, including Canada and the United States,
   gathered outside the Beijing courthouse where Kovrig is being tried.
   The diplomats said they have been barred from attending the trial on
   what China claims are national security reasons.
   Policemen wearing face masks chat each other at No. 2 Intermediate
   People's Court in Beijing, March 22, 2021.

   Spavor'strial last Friday, in which diplomats were also barred, ended
   without a verdict being rendered.

   The arrests of Kovrig andSpavorhave plunged relations between Ottawa
   and Beijing to their lowest levels in decades. Canadian Prime Minister
   Justin Trudeau has denounced China's actions as "completely
   unacceptable, as is the lack oftransparency around these court
   proceedings."

   Meng remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights the
   extradition warrant from the U.S.As chief financial officer of
   Huawei--one of the world's largest manufacturers of smartphones--Meng
   is accused of lying to U.S. officials about Huawei's business in Iran,
   which is under U.S. sanctions.

   The U.S. has also warned other countries against using Huawei-built
   products, suspecting the Chinese government of installing spywarein
   them.

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