The Canadian foreign ministry has on Wednesday, said that China has now detained third Canadian citizen, according to news report citing Canadian foreign minister.
According to news reports, China’s foreign minister spokesperson Hua Chunying said that she is still unaware of the act and report.
Amid Huawei chief executive officer (CFO) Meng Wanzhou arrest in Canada, China has last week detained two of Canadian citizen accused of harming national security of China. Two detained Canadian citizens were – former diplomat Michael Kovrig and a businessman Michael Spavor.
According to news reports, Canada’s global affairs office has said that they were aware of the detention of the third Canadian citizen but did not further provided any details and did not even suggested that it has any connection with the arrest of Huawei’s CFO.
Reports did not disclosed any details of the third person detained by China but according to the sources, who spoke to that individual’s family said that the individual was neither an entrepreneur nor a diplomat.
However, the Canada’s embassy in Beijing did not responded to any emails request to comment over the detention of third Canadian citizen in China, report said.
Further, the Canadian government has said that there were no explicit links between the detention of Spavor and Kovrig and Wanzhou’s.
But, however, a former Canadian diplomats and Beijing-based western diplomats said that they do believe that the detention by China was a form of “tit-for-tat” reprisal by China, in a response to Wanzhou’s arrest.
During the arrest of Wanzhou, China has repeatedly told Canada to correct its mistake and release Wanzhou and warned them, if not released, face unspecified consequences.