Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Canada’s Foreign Minister Peter MacKay, who was on a three-day visit to mainland China that ended yesterday, was not allowed to see Huseyin Celil, a Chinese-born ethnic Uighur who is also a Canadian citizen. For Beijing, Mr Celil, who was sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court, is a Chinese national and as such his fate is an internal matter. Meanwhile in Canada, Canada’s spy agency reports that half of its counter-espionage efforts target spies from the Chinese mainland.
MacKay’s trip to China had been planned for some time, but the life sentence imposed on Celil, a Uighur dissident who fled China for Canada where he was given refuge and citizenship, changed its nature.
Extradited to China from Uzbekistan, he was jailed for life on charges of ‘terrorism’ and ‘separatism against China.’
China has denied Canadian diplomats access to him as required by a consular treaty between the two nations, because Beijing refuses to recognise Celil's Canadian citizenship.
Mr MacKay, meeting his newly appointed counterpart Yang Jiechi, demanded consular access to the jailed Canadian citizen but all he could get were assurances that Mr Celil had not been tortured.
“Gaining access to Celil is an important issue of this government and we will continue to pursue it,” Mr MacKay told the press. "I . . . expressed our deep disappointment that we have thus far been denied access to this Canadian citizen."
Chinese sources have instead insisted that the case was an internal Chinese affair with no connection to Canada.
On a more positive note, Mr MacKay said that, despite the problem, relations with China were very important to his country as was greater co-operation in every field.
The Celil affair is not the only event that has soured relations between Ottawa and Beijing.
Almost half Canada's counter-espionage efforts target spies from the Chinese mainland, Jim Judd, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told a Senate committee on Monday.
Another irritant is the Canadian parliament's decision last November to give honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader who has been in exile since China’s invasion, which resulted in President Hu Jintao cancelling talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Hanoi.
In response to the snub, Mr Harper said that whilst Canada wants to promote trade relations, “I don't think Canadians want us to sell our important Canadian values.”
Last week, Ottawa also asked to take part in World Trade Organisation consultations on the application of intellectual property rights in China after the US lodged complaints.
For its part, China has complained that Canada has failed so far to extradite Lai Changxing, a Chinese businessman it described as its most wanted fugitive who fled to Canada with his wife in 1999 after he was accused of corruption and smuggling goods worth billions of dollars.