Canadian businessman Michael Spavor called his country’s Beijing embassy at an airport in northeast China. He was questioned by authorities after being blocked from boarding a flight from China.
The embassy’s concern about the appeal turned to alarm when officials learned that another Canadian had been detained in Beijing that day, on December 10, 2018, according to people familiar with the matter. This time, it was former diplomat Michael Kovrig.
Since then, the two men have been pushed into a large distance between Canada, the United States and China, where they have been detained and charged with espionage. Hopes have recently risen among family members and supporters that the men could be released if separate talks to settle criminal charges against Meng Wanzhou, an executive at China’s Huawei Technologies Co., bear fruit. Canada has accused China of holding the two men in retaliation for Ms. Meng’s arrest on a US extradition request.
As both sides are investigating the requests too far to make the connection, those discussions have stalled and are now inactive, according to people familiar with the matter. The Biden administration could review talks in the coming months, people said, but the timing of such a move is unclear. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
Vice President Kamala Harris told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a phone call earlier this month that the United States would do everything possible to release the two men.