#heightened tensions

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'China's Hostage Politics': Canadian's Death Sentence Heightens China, Canada Tensions

  BEIJING – China on Tuesday vociferously defended a court’s decision to impose the death penalty on a convicted Canadian drug smuggler, escalating a diplomatic row that experts say has descended into a high-stakes game of “hostage politics”.

China’s foreign ministry blasted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “irresponsible remarks” after he criticised the death sentence imposed on 36-year-old Robert Lloyd Schellenberg.

Beijing and Ottawa have been squabbling since last month, when Canada arrested the chief financial officer of top Chinese telecom company Huawei on a US extradition request related to Iran sanctions violations.

In a move observers see as retaliation, Chinese authorities detained two Canadian citizens — a former diplomat and a business consultant — on suspicion of endangering national security.

Then authorities revisited the little-known case of Schellenberg, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in November for drug offences.

A month later, an upper court took up his appeal and ordered a hasty retrial in the northeastern city of Dalian after ruling that the punishment was too lenient.

The timing and swiftness of Schellenberg’s sentence, and the inclusion of new evidence presenting him as a key player in a plan to ship 222 kilogrammes (490 pounds) of methamphetamine to Australia, raised suspicion among observers.

“Playing hostage politics, China rushes the retrial of a Canadian suspect and sentences him to death in a fairly transparent attempt to pressure Canada,” Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said in a tweet.

Donald Clarke, a George Washington University professor specialising in Chinese law, coined an even grimmer term for the situation: “death threat diplomacy”.

“The Chinese government is not even trying to pretend that there was a fair trial here,” he said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed “extreme concern” that China had “chosen to arbitrarily” apply the death penalty.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying denied Beijing had politicised Schellenberg’s case, calling on Canada to “respect China’s judicial sovereignty… and stop making such irresponsible remarks”.

Ottawa had issued a new travel advisory urging citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws”.

Beijing issued a similar response hours later, calling on Chinese citizens to “travel cautiously” after a Chinese citizen was “arbitrarily detained on the basis of a request of a third-party country”, an apparent reference to Meng’s arrest.

The court in Liaoning said on Tuesday its actions were “in compliance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law”, the state-run Legal Daily reported.

Suspect Timing

China executes one or two foreigners every year — nearly all for drug offences, according to John Kamm, director of the US-based Dui Hua Foundation rights group.

Experts said retrials are rare in China, especially ones calling for a harsher sentence, but rights groups note that courts are not independent and can be influenced by the ruling Communist Party.

“What’s unusual is how this case shifted from extremely slow handling to suddenly rapid fire movement,” said Margaret Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall University.

The rare decision to allow three foreign journalists, including one from AFP, to attend the hearing makes it “clear that the Chinese government wants (the) international spotlight on this case”.

“The timing is suspect and certainly his nationality makes it all the more glaring,” she said.

Meng at Home

Schellenberg, who claimed he was innocent and framed by an acquaintance, has 10 days to appeal to the same high court that rejected his first appeal.

Lewis said the court was likely to confirm the sentence and the case would move up to the Supreme People’s Court.

The top court could confirm the death penalty, give him a two-year suspended death sentence that would be converted into a long prison term or reduce his punishment, she said.

Clarke said: “My prediction is that the Supreme People’s Court will sit on the review decision for as long as Meng’s fate remains undetermined.”

The fate of the other two Canadians, who have been held in undisclosed locations, remains a mystery.

Last week, Trudeau accused China of “arbitrarily and unfairly” detaining former diplomat Michael Kovrig and business consultant Michael Spavor, who were rounded up nine days after Canada arrested Meng.

The Chinese foreign ministry rejected Trudeau’s assertion that Kovrig, who now works for the International Crisis Group, still enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

Meng, meanwhile, was granted bail by a Canadian court last month, allowing her to wait for the US extradition hearing in a Vancouver house.

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ISTANBUL | Shots fired at gate of US Embassy in Turkey; no one hurt

ISTANBUL— Shots were fired from a moving car at the U.S. Embassy in Turkey before dawn on Monday, an attack that came during heightened tensions between the two NATO allies.

There were no casualties and no claim of responsibility for the fleeting attack, in which three of the six bullets that were fired hit the embassy gate and a reinforced window.

“We can confirm a security incident took place at the U.S. Embassy early this morning. We have no reports of any injuries and we are investigating the details” embassy spokesman David Gainer said. He thanked Turkish police for their “rapid response.”

Turkey’s interior minister said police and intelligence units were searching for the car and suspects, stressing their motive would be established only after they are apprehended.

Suleyman Soylu speculated, however: “Is it a provocation following recent events or is it a common crime or is it an attempt to provoke by dressing it up as a petty crime?”

Turkish officials, who are locked in a trade and diplomatic dispute with the United States, condemned the shooting in Ankara. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin tweeted that it was “an attempt to create chaos.”

A top official in Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party said the attack was a “clear provocation” and that foreign diplomatic missions are guests of the country.

“The utmost sensitivity will be shown to ensure their security,” said the party spokesman, Omer Celik. “Turkey is a safe country.”

The U.S. Embassy was scheduled to close at midday Monday until the end of the week for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, according to its website.

Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey are high, partly because of the case of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who is being prosecuted in Turkey for alleged espionage and terrorism-related offenses that he denies.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called for his immediate release. Turkey has long criticized the United States for not agreeing to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric accused by Turkish authorities of engineering an attempted coup in 2016. Gulen denies those allegations, and Washington has urged Turkey to present convincing evidence for any extradition proceeding to go forward.

The United States recently imposed economic penalties on Turkey, including tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, that contributed to a slide in the value of the Turkish lira. Turkey’s economy is already vulnerable because of heavy foreign currency borrowing that fueled high growth for years.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government imposed its own tit-for-tat tariffs on some American goods, alluded to the dispute with the U.S. in a pre-recorded holiday message.

“There is no difference between the direct attacks on our call to prayer and our flag and the attack on our economy,” said Erdogan, a pious Muslim who has drawn on religious and nationalist references in comments about the standoff.

He said defiantly, “Those who think they can make Turkey give in with the foreign exchange rate . will soon see they are wrong.” The lira has lost 38 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since the beginning of the year.

U.S. diplomatic offices have been targeted in the past in Turkey, where various armed groups are active.

At least one suspect was wounded in a shooting outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul in 2015. In 2013, a suicide bomber killed a Turkish guard and himself after detonating an explosive device outside the embassy in Ankara. In 2008, three assailants and three Turkish police officers died in a shootout outside the Istanbul post.