The Global Times said there was no evidence that the arrest of Kovrig was in any way connected to the case, but said “the assumption is because Canada has gone too far and people naturally believe China will retaliate.”

READ MORE: Freeland says a second Canadian may be facing difficulties in China after questioning by authorities

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland warned the United States on Wednesday not to politicize extradition cases, a day after President Trump said he would intervene in the case if it served national security interests. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale confirmed Kovrig's detention The International Crisis Group said he was taken into custody Monday night by the Beijing Bureau of Chinese State Security, which handles intelligence and counterintelligence matters in the Chinese capital,

Rob Malley, president of the Brussels-based group, said he thinks Kovrig was in Beijing on personal matters at the time of his arrest and was definitely not there for any illegal purpose or for any reason that would undermine Chinese national security. Donald Trump is not what you would call a paragon of circumspection or tact at the best of times, so it should perhaps come as no surprise, but the American president has now poured buckets of gasoline on what was already a geopolitical bonfire in the case of Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei chief financial officer detained in Vancouver earlier this month at the request of the U.S. Justice Department. Meng’s case hasn’t just revealed Huawei to be the tool of the Chinese oligarchy and the menace to national security that Justin Trudeau’s government has been warned about, time and time again, by a succession of Canadian and American security and intelligence agencies – warnings the government has ignored. “I don’t want to speculate as to what’s behind it but I am prepared to be categorical about what’s not behind it, and what’s not behind it is any illegal activity or endangering of Chinese national security,” Malley told Reuters, before the state media report came out. • 10/3 podcast: Canada gets on China’s bad side with arrest of Huawei executive
• Huawei executive granted $10M bail while Trump says he may intervene in case if it helps China trade deal
• ‘No coincidence’: Detention of Canadian in China looks like tit-for-tat response to Huawei executive’s arrest, say former ambassadors

Quite apart from the casual contempt for due process, judicial independence and the rule of law implicit in his remarks on Tuesday, Trump gave every impression that Canada merely acted as an American lickspittle when the Mounties apprehended Meng during a Dec. 1 flight stopover at Vancouver International Airport.
Chinese state media reports a second Canadian national, Michael Spavor, has been detained on suspicion of endangering state security, while the China foreign ministry say two Canadian nationals are detained in the country. The Spavor investigation follows the detention of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig on December 10 and Canada's December 1 arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.