Canada guilty of bending the law to suit its propitiative purpose: China Daily editorial

It is more than 12 months since Huawei Chief Financial Officer, Chinese citizen Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States, and Canadian nationals Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested in China. Although both sides defend the arrests as justified law enforcement, there are distinct differences.

In a Monday statement marking the one-year anniversary of the two Canadian citizens' arrest, Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne claimed Kovrig and Spavor were being "arbitrarily detained" in China.

In an angry retort, the Chinese embassy in Canada said that what Canada and the US have done in the case of Meng "counts as arbitrary detention".

Given the nature of the cases — Meng is being held for extradition proceedings on fraud charges, while the two Canadians are under arrest for crimes against Chinese national security, and are being held and investigated in strict accordance with law — it is clear which side is doing the arbitrary detaining.

And that has been reinforced by the latest development, in which Canadian lawmakers on Tuesday approved the creation of a special committee charged with examining relations with China.

Instead of repairing the damaged ties, the idea is to redress the current government's "failure" to stand up against China.

The Conservatives, who are behind the new committee, not only want to scrap their country's investment in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, but also oppose allowing Huawei into their country's 5G network.

These politicians apparently fail to understand that it is the Canadian government's failure to stand up to its neighbor that has created the situation leading to Monday's angry exchange. By caving in to US demands that it help suffocate Huawei, the Canadian government has been willing to play with the letter of the law to appease its domineering neighbor at a time when the two countries have been wrangling over a trade deal along with Mexico.

An amended Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement was signed on Tuesday. And speaking at the signing ceremony, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the agreement was reached after a sometimes long and arduous negotiation process. No doubt Canada doing the US' bidding with regard to Huawei has helped get it over the line.

Although Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, frustrated over Washington's determination to strangle his company, just extended an olive branch to Canada with an offer to move US-based research and development facilities there.

If the political weather turns foul with the newly conceived committee, Ren very likely will have to reconsider that offer. Then the loss certainly will not just be Huawei's.