Canada's Foreign Ministry said it has been unable to contact Canadian businessman Michael Spavor since he notified the government that he was being questioned by Chinese authorities.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland earlier told reporters that a second Canadian citizen could be in trouble in China. Authorities in China are already holding former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was detained on Monday.
Foreign ministry spokesman Guillaume Berube said in a statement issued in Canada late on Wednesday the missing Canadian was Spavor, a businessman who is based in the northern Chinese city of Dandong and who runs cultural exchanges with North Korea.
Canada was working hard to ascertain Spavor's whereabouts and would continue to raise the issue with the Chinese government, Berube said.
Authorities in China are already holding former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was detained on Monday. His current employer, the International Crisis Group, said it was seeking his prompt and safe release.
Officials say China had so far not linked Kovrig's detention to the arrest in Vancouver on Dec. 1 of Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, which infuriated Beijing. But Canadian diplomatic experts have said they have no doubt the two cases are linked.
U.S. prosecutors accuse Meng of misleading multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions, putting the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions. She has said she is innocent.
— CNBC contributed to this article.
from Top News & Analysis https://ift.tt/2Lgac4H
No comments:
Post a Comment