Todd Bishop
US Vice President Mike Pence met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa on Thursday (30th). The former said that President Trump is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in June, hoping that both sides can make progress on trade issues.
Burns said that he expects Chinese and American leaders to make progress on trade issues when they meet in Osaka, Japan in June, but stressed that China must agree to reform.
Burns also mentioned two Canadian citizens arrested in China, saying that the United States and Canada are on the same front and believe that Trump will seek Chinese to release two people during the meeting.. Penns also said that Chinese laws allow local governments to obtain data collected by Huawei. The US has clearly stated that Huawei poses risks to the security of the United States and its allies.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed on May 16 that Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor had been arrested by the authorities for approval. Kang Mingkai, a former Canadian diplomat, was accused of spying on state secrets and intelligence crimes abroad; Spaf was a businessman suspected of stealing and illegally providing state secret crimes.
After the arrest of Meng Shuzhou, vice chairman of Huawei, in Vancouver in December 2018, relations between Canada and China have turned sharply. It is widely believed that the detention of Kang Mingkai and Spaf in China is related to the Huawei incident. Apart from them, two other Canadian citizens were sentenced to death for suspected drug trafficking in China.
