The saga of Huawei Case is over, and with it one of the main obstacles in relations between Washington and Ottawa, on the one hand, and Beijing, on the other. Just as the Chinese tech giant’s CFO Meng Wanzhou heads to China after the US dropped charges against her, Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have also been released and are on a plane to return to House.

“Twelve minutes ago, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor left Chinese airspace, returning home,” announced Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, without giving further details on the release of his two compatriots. This is an “ongoing operation”, he stressed. Both will land in Canada this Saturday. “These two men went through a horrible ordeal for over a thousand days. They have shown determination, grace and resilience at every turn and are an inspiration to us all,” Trudeau said.

The return of Meng, on the one hand, and the “two Michaels”, as they were commonly called, on the other, puts an end to nearly three years of behind-the-scenes negotiations between China, on the one hand, and the United States and Canada, on the other hand, in a matter that has deteriorated relations between the two parties to levels not seen in decades.

The case exploded on December 1, 2018, when Meng, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested by Canadian authorities at the request of the United States, while she was making a stopover in the city of Vancouver in road to Mexico. Washington’s Justice Department accused her of violating US sanctions against Iran and demanded her extradition from Ottawa.

Beijing was furious over what it saw as a politicized attack on one of its leading technology companies and a leader in 5G. Just two days later, in retaliation, the two Canadians were arrested on suspicion of espionage. Kovrig, a former diplomat who at the time of his arrest worked for the conflict resolution NGO Crisis Group, was imprisoned in Beijing. Spavor, a businessman specializing in cultural exchanges with North Korea, was arrested at his home in Dandong, on that country’s border with China.

Spavor was sentenced in August to 11 years in prison for espionage and disclosing state secrets to foreign forces. Kovrig was tried in March, but was still awaiting sentencing.

Canada and the United States have always described the arrests of the two Canadians as “arbitrary”. Chinese diplomats always declared, until the last moment, that these cases were not linked to the detention of Meng, who was under house arrest in one of her homes in Vancouver. On September 3, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry insisted that “the Meng Wanzhou incident and the cases of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig are of a completely different nature.” Isolated cases of Canadian citizens have been spectacular and China has been falsely accused of arbitrary detention.

The Gordian knot was untied when the US Department of Justice reached a deal with Meng, in which the executive was released in exchange for public acknowledgment of the commission of minor crimes. The release of the financial director and the two Canadians represents an olive branch between Washington and Beijing. This perhaps opens the door to a certain restart of relations between the two rivals, after a general deterioration of ties during the four years in office of Donald Trump and which did not improve after the arrival of Joe Biden to the presidency. White House.

The agreement and its rapid outcome were announced precisely on the day Biden held a summit at the White House with members of the Quad, the informal security association formed by the United States, Japan, Australia and the India. And Beijing perceives this as an alliance intended to limit its influence in the Indo-Pacific region. It also comes a week after the announcement of a defense pact between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom which will include, among other things, the supply of nuclear submarines to Canberra. The deal, known as Aukus, will strengthen U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region and has drawn sharp criticism from China, which views it as yet another hostile act.

The agreement between the US prosecutor’s office and Meng will be in effect until December 2022, and until then the United States can reactivate the judicial process if it deems it necessary. If agreement is not notified by this date, the file will be considered definitively closed. Just hours after the charges were dropped, Canadian judges officially ended the Chinese executive’s extradition process.

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