Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being urged to postpone free-trade talks with China until the authoritarian regime frees two Canadians who have been detained for more than 20 months over a customs duty dispute.
Amy Chang, whose father and mother have been trapped in China since March, 2016, wrote to Mr. Trudeau on Monday, asking him to “directly help free my parents” when he meets President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang next week.
Mr. Trudeau leaves for Beijing on Saturday to meet China’s top leaders, where they are expected to formally announce bilateral free-trade talks – negotiations that will likely take years.
Ms. Chang says the Chinese government has criminalized what should merely be a commercial dispute and that her parents’ treatment should serve as a warning to people looking to do business in China.
The case has raised questions about the Liberal government’s pursuit of a special relationship with China – a country that doesn’t have an independent justice system and where graft and corruption are common.
John Chang, who emigrated from Taiwan in 2000, was once celebrated in Canada for his entrepreneurial skills and regularly participated in trade missions to China with Canadian government officials. He was named an RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant award winner in 2015 for building a wine business from Richmond, B.C., with principal exports to the Asian market.
