Canadian citizen Wang Tianan (Ti-Anna Wang) tried to visit her father in prison in China earlier this month and was refused entry. She was detained for nearly two hours yesterday (16th) when she was transiting back to Canada in Beijing.Wang Tianan believes that this is China's retaliation against Canada.However, the Chinese scholars interviewed believe that this matter is not obviously related to China-Canada relations and is more likely to be an isolated incident.
According to Canada's Globe and Mail, 30-year-old Wang Tianan was planning to fly from Seoul, South Korea to Toronto via Beijing on Wednesday. When she was connecting, six police officers took her and her 11-month-old daughter off the plane and detained her for nearly two hours.
Wang Tianan said in an email to the Post: "This was a shocking, horrific and pointlessly painful experience with the sole purpose of bullying, punishing and intimidating me and my family.
Wang Tianan's father, Wang Bingzhang, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 for espionage and terrorist activities and is currently being held in a prison in Shaoguan, Guangdong.He was accused of providing intelligence to Taiwan from 1982 to 1990, organizing and leading a terrorist organization, and planning attacks on Chinese embassies abroad.Wang Bingzhang received a doctorate in medicine from McGill University in Canada in 1982 and founded China's first overseas democracy movement organization in 1983.He is a permanent resident of the United States. His family members believe that he was convicted for pro-democracy activities and have tried to ask the U.S. State Department to intervene in the matter.
According to the Post, Wang Bingzhang suffered multiple strokes while being held in near solitary confinement. Wang Tianan applied for a visa to visit his father in China in August last year.When she arrived at Hangzhou Airport last week, she was refused entry.But two days later, Wang Bingzhang’s son, Times Wang, was allowed to visit.
Wang Tianan believes that she was detained at the Beijing airport yesterday because China punished her to retaliate against the Canadian government, and also because she was interviewed by the Post about the refusal to enter Hangzhou.
However, Chu Yin, a researcher at the China Globalization Think Tank, pointed out in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao that it is very common all over the world for dissidents or their children to be detained for interrogation and investigation.A common thing.
Regarding Wang Tianan’s accusation that her experience is related to China-Canada relations, Chu Yin said: Too many people are speculating on the topic.The governments and civil societies of China and Canada must take the initiative to cool down the situation.Wang Tianan's detention was within the normal operation of the system.
Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor of the Department of International Politics at the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, analyzed in an interview that, judging from the current known situation, the detention of Wang Tianan should not have much to do with the detention of Meng Wanzhou and the other two Canadians., it is more likely to be an exception.
On December 1 last year, in accordance with the requirements of the US-Canada extradition treaty, Canadian officials arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and the company's chief financial officer, when she was changing planes in Vancouver.After that, China successively arrested two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on the grounds of endangering national security.Many observers believe that China detained the two men in retaliation for Canada's detention of Meng Wanzhou, but China denies that the two are related.
On the other hand, China on Monday sentenced Schellenberg, a 36-year-old Canadian citizen, to death for drug smuggling.Canada and China later reminded their citizens to be cautious when traveling to the other country.
Cheng Xiaohe told this newspaper: The two countries may continue to arrest each other.From the perspective of scholars, it is best not to escalate, because it will not only damage the relationship between the two countries, but also hurt the feelings between the two peoples. People's feelings can be destroyed overnight, but it will take a long time to repair.(Reported by You Runtian, Beijing correspondent of Lianhe Zaobao)
