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By Amandalina Letterio

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

TRU poli-sci professor sees a light at the end of the tunnel for the ‘Two Michaels’

Sep 10, 2021 | 4:18 PM

KAMLOOPS — This week marks 1000 days since the Chinese government detained Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in December 2018 — but Thompson Rivers University political science professor Robert Hanlon is optimistic about their return.

The indictment is widely seen as an act of retaliation against Canada for its arrest of Huawei Telecom executive Meng Wanzhou and has been referred to as an instance of hostage diplomacy.

“Both Canada and China are running out their legal processes, once that is completed, I think it will be a time where the politicians come to the table and accept that this is clearly a political situation — it’s beyond legal parameters,” Hanlon told CFJC News.

“I do see a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Wanzhou is on house arrest in her Vancouver mansion after the RCMP arrested her on a provisional U.S. extradition request for fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud in 2018 — in order to circumvent U.S. sanctions against Iran.

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In retaliation, the Chinese government detained the two Michaels; both are Canadians who happened to be working in China, with no relation to one another.

The men were brought to detention facilities where they were reportedly interrogated for up to eight hours a day, with the lights left on in their cells for 24 hours a day.

Allegedly, they have been denied access to consular officials and to their lawyers.