2 Canadians in prisoner swap freed for health reasons in China

Two Canadians detained in late 2019 who were allowed to return to Canada in a prisoner swap were released on bail for health reasons, China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday.

A Ministry spokesperson made the comment as Beijing sought to downplay the connection between their release and the return to China of a long-detained executive of Huawei Technologies.

Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were detained in December 2019, days after Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada at the request of US 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 US demand for extradition from Canada. She landed in China on Saturday after reaching a deal with the US Justice Department that led to a prisoner swap.