Hacker News Reader

Comment by neom | Hacker News Reader

Good luck France. Remember what happened to Canada after the Meng Wanzhou situation? Wasn't great. Not saying don't enforce the laws, just... good luck.

View on HN

I would say that those two Canadians put themselves in danger the moment they entered an authoritarian country.

It is ridiculous to expect that one will get a fair trial in these kinds of countries; law just exists there not to protect the general public, but the dictator himself.

Turns out being a diplomat isn't quite such a glamorous job, eh?

That aside, the situation with the Michaels is a tiny component of how the China-Canada relationship has chilled. The Canadian government continually comes out and says China basically doesn't answer the phone anymore, and it's not like the trade relationship is strong, and we have Xi scolding Justin Trudeau in front of the press on the sidelines of global events.

My point is, if you wanna play with China, you better be ready to play.

https://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/meng-wanzhou-and...

The website you linked is published by the Hong Kong-based China–United States Exchange Foundation, which was founded by a former Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

As the Chief Executive of Hong Kong is somehow "picked" by the CCP, the media can be seen as semi-state-controlled IMO.

If I happened to carry a French passport and was in China now, I'd get out immediately.

I would give the same advice for anybody with a foreign passport. The country is going downhill and there doesn't seem to be any breaks, foreigners will be the first target on the blame list.

What exactly did happen to Canada? Were they wiped of the map or something?

The same happened to the UK here after the Brexit.

Canada isn't real. It's just a Chinese PsyOp.

What is it with Super Powers being in conflict with their own covert ops?

Yup, you didn't hear? Canada no longer exists. Now y'all are gonna have to consume that inferior Vermont maple syrup.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230509-the-key-issue...

Yeah, China arrested Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the latter later admitted he was used by Michael Kovrig to pass intelligence information to the Canadian spy agencies. [1] The Canada paid them off to remain silent [2].

[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-spavor-kovrig... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-ready-pay-sett...

Source [1] says:

> China subjected Mr. Spavor to lengthy interrogation sessions, according to one of the sources. He was drugged, forced to sit in a chair for long hours and subjected to threats of execution, the source said. Mr. Spavor admitted to the Chinese interrogators, the source said, that he provided information to Mr. Kovrig.

I'd only be able to trust statements that were made freely. Have either of these two made any statements on the matter since returning to Canada? I also wouldn't trust most plea deals made with US federal prosecutors either -- it's easy for any government to get people to plead guilty to things they didn't do.

As a matter of fact he did. He sued the other Michael in Canada.

I can see where Spavor sued the Canadian government, but can't find Spavor vs. Kovrig (or vice-versa). Still, since returning to Canada, Spavor is continuing to state that he provided espionage intelligence to Kovrig. So that checks out.

> Spavor is seeking a multimillion dollar settlement against the federal government for involving him in espionage activities without his knowledge. Spavor alleges that he provided Michael Kovrig with intelligence on North Korea, which Kovrig then secretly gave to the Canadian government and its Five Eyes allies without Spavor's permission, leading to their arrest and detention.

You're using an "alleges" as confirmation?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com