China using “arbitrary detentions” for political goals: Canada  

DHARAMSALA, 7 Sept: The Canadian Prime Minister has accused China of using “arbitrary detentions” as a tool in the pursuit of political goals, reported The Guardian.

Trudeau said China was “using arbitrary detention as a tool to achieve political goals” during a live-streamed conversation with Toronto Star reporters.

“Using arbitrary detention as a tool to achieve political goals, international or domestic, is something that is of concern not just to Canada but to all our allies,”  Trudeau has said.

Prime Minister Trudeau’s remarks came at a time of deteriorating diplomatic and trade relations between Ottawa and Beijing.

Along with Canada, Britain, France, Germany and the United States all share the same concern, the prime minister has said adding that they are “all worried about China engaging in the same kinds of pressure tactics with them”, the report added.

“We need to figure out how to engage with them, but we also have to be clear-eyed about it, that China plays by a very different set of rules and principles than we do in the West,” he concluded.

The relationship between the two countries nosedived after the Huawei chief financial officer was arrested by the Canadian authorities in Vancouver late last year on the behest of the US government.

Following her arrest, China has reportedly detained two Canadians – former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor – and accused them of espionage in a move widely viewed as retaliation, the report said and added that they are among a string of foreign nationals arrested in China and charged with espionage or attempting to steal state secrets.

Meanwhile, China has counter accused Canada of not abiding by international norms while Calling the prime minister’s accusations of arbitrary detentions ‘purely unfounded.’

“Trudeau’s remarks are purely unfounded countercharges that confound black and white,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang has said.