Former Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney

AMANPOUR: Rather the Chinese ambassador has said it’s understandable that these Canadians are concerned about their own citizens. But have they shown any concern or sympathy for Meng. Now, she is the official who’s arrested in China after she was, they say, illegally detained and deprived of freedom. So give us an update about Ms. Meng, who is an executive, the chief financial officer at the big Huawei tech giant. What is her condition? I mean, your citizens are in jail, they haven’t had access to lawyers. How is Mrs. Meng doing?

MULRONEY: And let me add, Christiane, if I may, not only are our two citizens in detention, we know from their testimony and the testimony of others that they’re subject — the lights are on 24/7, they’re subject to round the clock interrogations. These things actually constitute torture in international law, sleep deprivation. What’s happening with Ms. Meng couldn’t be more different. She got a good Canadian lawyer when she was arrested in Vancouver, she had a bail hearing, she made the case she should be allowed to live in one of her two properties in Vancouver, she has hired her own security guards and she’s on a curfew where she has to be back in her residence at 11:00 o’clock at night, she’s free to go again at 6:00 in the morning and she’s been seen many times in Vancouver shopping and going about her business. So Canada is following the rule of law to the letter and we’re treating Ms. Meng fairly. She will have her day in court through this process, however it unfolds. The same is absolutely not true of what’s happening to our Canadians.

AMANPOUR: So do you have any doubt — because the Chinese completely reject any linkage and they’d say this is not a tit for tat response. Is the official position of Canada and your analysis that this is a tit for tat, what’s happened to Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor, your citizens in China?

MULRONEY: Yes, this has to be seen as a tit for tat. In fact, the Chinese ambassador to Ottawa, who’s been very, very outspoken and — and very feisty in his rhetoric and his — and his denunciation of Canada basically made that point. And the — the point is, too, we’ve seen it before. In 2014, Canada extradited a Chinese aerospace technician to the United States on suspicion of steeling U.S. military secrets. He subsequently, but guilty and was sentenced to jail, but in the wake of that, two Canadians, a couple up in North China who ran a coffee shop on the North Korean border were detained. The husband was kept in detention for 19 months. This is China’s response of choice in these incidents, and they know that countries like Canada and the United States and the U.K. are very vulnerable because we care about our citizens. We don’t want them to be held hostage like this.