Another Canadian snatched in China: Trump offers to intervene, Canada says no thanks

A second Canadian expat has gone missing in China, and diplomatic experts are certain that he too has been snatched by the Chinese government in retaliation for the arrest of a topflight executive.

China confirmed on Thursday (Wednesday in North America) that Michael Spavor was “being investigated in China on suspicion of harming China’s national security,” Reuters reported, quoting an official news site of the government of Liaoning province.

Without disclosing further details, the site said he had been under investigation since Dec. 10.

Spavor founded the Paektu Cultural Exchange, a company that helps arrange trips to North Korea, according to CNN. His company helped facilitate NBA player Dennis Rodman’s trips to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Canada’s Foreign Ministry said Spavor had reached out to them about being questioned by the Chinese government and that they had been unable to contact him since.

He had contacted them concerned because "he was being asked questions by Chinese authorities,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters. "We have not been able to make contact with him since he let us know about this."

Spavor’s detention seems to be the second in retaliation for the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies and the daughter of its founder, on Dec. 1. She has been charged with fraud and is out on C$10 million bail after a hearing in Vancouver, where a court is deciding whether extradition to the U.S. is warranted. She faces fraud charges in the U.S., where she allegedly hid ties to Iranian companies, putting U.S. firms in danger of violating sanctions.

In contrast, the secrecy surrounding the cases and charges against Spavor and Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat living in China who was detained earlier this week, have been vague, and Canadian officials have been hard put to get information on their whereabouts and well-being.

With the United States and China are in trade talks, officials from both sides have been adamant that they are separate from the legal case against Meng, according to the Associated Press. However, President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered to intervene in Meng’s case if it would help the trade agreement along. Canada declined, with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday telling the U.S. not to politicize extradition cases.

“Our extradition partners should not seek to politicize the extradition process or use it for ends other than the pursuit of justice and following the rule of law,” she said, Reuters reported.

"We are working very hard to ascertain his whereabouts and we have also raised this case with the Chinese authorities,” said Freeland of Spavor, according to BBC News.