The fight to free the Michaels: Canada's ambassador to the U.S. describes the months before their release

About a month before two Canadians detained in China were flown home in a sudden move that stunned observers of Canada-China relations, Beijing was sending signals to Canadian diplomats that it was moving closer to a resolution on the file.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the United States, said the shift by Chinese officials was matched by increasing international pressure to resolve the cases of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

"At the same time, we doubled down on our advocacy. We tripled down on our advocacy — not just us, but the U.S. and all of our partners," Hillman said in an interview on CBC Radio's The House.

"I think it became clear to China that they wanted to put this behind them because it was just going to get worse and worse if they didn't resolve this matter."

Spavor and Kovrig were arrested in China in December 2018, just days after Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.

Kovrig and Spavor were released just hours after Meng resolved her American legal case through a deferred prosecution agreement. That ended the extradition case against Meng, who had been on house arrest in Vancouver. She boarded a plane for China that same day.

Hillman has been working at the Canadian embassy in Washington since 2017. She said she raised the case of the two detainees in virtually every meeting she had with the American administration and other decision-makers over the past two and a half years.