China claims Kovrig, Spavor freed for health reasons
CBC
China's foreign ministry says Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were allowed to return to Canada late last week after nearly three years in detention, were released on bail for health reasons.
A ministry spokesperson made the comments Monday as Beijing sought to downplay the connection between their release and the return to China of a long-detained executive of Huawei Technologies.
Spavor and Kovrig were detained in December 2018, days after Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada at the request of U.S. authorities.
Many countries labelled China's action "hostage politics," while China accused Ottawa of arbitrary detention. The two Canadians were jailed for more than 1,000 days.
Meng fought the U.S. demand for extradition from Canada. She landed in China on Saturday after reaching a deal with the U.S. Justice Department that led to a prisoner swap.
"The case of Meng Wanzhou is completely different from that of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in nature," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a daily briefing on Monday.
The two men were suspected of endangering national security, Hua said.
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