In December 2018, Canadian nationals Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were taken into custody in China. It appeared that their detention on December 10 and subsequent indictment under the state secrets law were linked to the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada on December 1. In English-language media, the pair are frequently and colloquially referred to as the Two Michaels.
Prior to his detention and arrest, Kovrig was working for the International Crisis Group out of its Hong Kong office. He previously worked for the United Nations and as a Canadian diplomat. Spavor had been a consultant and the director of Paektu Cultural Exchange, an organization that promotes investment and tourism in North Korea.
On September 24, 2021, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Kovrig and Spavor had been released from detention in China after 1,019 days, shortly after Meng was released from house arrest in Canada.
Background
Michael Spavor
Michael Spavor was a consultant working in North Korea. He is a founding member and director of Paektu Cultural Exchange, an NGO that facilitates sports, cultural, tourism and business exchanges with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).
Michael Kovrig
Michael Kovrig (born February 3, 1972) is a Canadian former diplomat and geopolitical analyst and advisor working for the International Crisis Group, a transnational, independent, non-governmental organization focused on preventing and resolving deadly conflict through research and advocacy.
Previously, Kovrig had worked as a diplomat and foreign service officer for Canada’s foreign ministry for nearly a decade. He also worked for the United Nations Development Programme in New York City as a strategic communications specialist, and as a researcher for the firm that later became Rhodium Group.
After being detained in December 2018, he was accused of "Spying on State Secrets or Intelligence for Parties Outside the Territory of China” by the Chinese government in May 2019. His arrest is widely considered to be political retaliation for the arrest of Meng, though the Chinese government has denied any connection between the two cases. Kovrig, Crisis Group and the Canadian government all insisted that he was innocent of all charges and US President Joe Biden declared that he and Spavor were being used as “bartering chips”.
Arrest of Meng Wanzhou
The detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor followed the arrest of Meng Wanzhou by Canadian authorities. Meng was the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, founded by her father Ren Zhengfei. She was arrested at the Vancouver International Airport by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) at the request of the United States, pursuant to the extradition treaty between Canada and the United States. On January 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced financial fraud charges against Meng. If proven guilty, Meng potentially faced up to 10 years' imprisonment per 18 U.S.C. § 1832.
Arrest and detention
Kovrig joined the International Crisis Group in February 2017 as a senior adviser for North East Asia. On December 10, 2018, Michael Kovrig was detained in Beijing around the same time as Michael Spavor, a Canadian consultant with a personal relationship with Kim Jong-un and a history of working with North Korea. Following their detention, the men were transferred to detention facilities where they were interrogated for up to eight hours a day. The lights in their cells were reportedly left on 24 hours a day, and they were denied access to consular officials and to their lawyers. The prosecutors of China later charged the two Canadians with espionage endangering China's national security. If proven, such a crime may result in life sentences or more, to ensure the nondisclosure of illegally gathered intelligence. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called their arrest "arbitrary".
In March 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Kovrig was permitted by the Chinese government to have a telephone conversation with his sick father.
Chinese legal proceedings
On June 19, 2020, the men were formally charged with spying on national secrets and providing state secrets to entities outside of China.