By Canadian Press

Low profile for Canada on Tiananmen anniversary amid Kovrig, Spavor jailings

Jun 4, 2019 | 10:00 AM

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked Tuesday’s 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre by saying he has real concerns about China’s human-rights record, including the repression of an estimated one million ethnic Uighurs.

Trudeau offered that statement when questioned by a journalist about the anniversary during an event in Vancouver, but his government had yet to speak proactively about it.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the European Union’s Federica Mogherini urged China to address its decision to kill hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pro-democracy student protesters in 1989.

That followed a statement in the Senate on Monday by Liberal Sen. Jim Munson, who covered the massacre in Beijing as a CTV television journalist, in which he criticized the Chinese communist government for erasing all traces of the event from its history. 

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Canada-China relations are at an all-time low following the arrests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and Ottawa’s calls for their release have prompted angry dismissals and admonishments from Beijing.

The pair continues to languish in Chinese custody, on allegations of espionage, in what is widely viewed as retribution for Canada’s arrest last December of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wangzhou on an extradition request by the U.S.

The Canadian Press