China sentences Canadian businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years for spying

Canadian businessman Michael Spavor has been sentenced by a Chinese court to 11 years behind bars on espionage charges. Canadian observers criticised the ruling on August 11, 2021, as “hostage diplomacy” in retaliation for the arrest of a top Huawei executive. Spavor is one of two Canadians arrested in 2019, weeks after the detention of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Canada on a US extradition request. Spavor and former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig were arrested in the city of Dandong, near the North Korean border. 
Spavor’s verdict was handed down one day after a Chinese High Court in Liaoning province upheld a death sentence for convicted Canadian drug trafficker Robert Schellenberg.