The public stance of Chinese leaders is that the courts in Canada are much as they are in China: a pliable tool of the central government that can be manipulated
The decision released Wednesday in the Meng Wanzhou extradition case had the usual hallmarks of a Canadian judicial ruling: a bone-dry analysis of the law, the facts and how one should be applied to the other.
Whatever they might privately believe, the public stance of Chinese Communist Party leaders is that the courts in Canada are much as they are in China: a pliable tool of the central government that can be manipulated when necessary, say China hands. Indeed, as Justice Heather Holmes readied the judgment on Tuesday in her B.C. Supreme Court chambers, a prominent Chinese official suggested the decision would be the product of the Canadian government, not a lone judge.
It is the kind of case that routinely unfolds in Canada. But Meng’s arrest in December 2018 infuriated China and led to what are widely viewed as retaliatory measures, including the imprisoning on vague spying charges of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. “China doesn’t work quite the same way and seem to understand that we do have an independent judiciary,” he said.
The assumption that courts will toe the party line on important issues is applied to other countries, too, argued Charles Burton, a former diplomat in Beijing.
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