China slams Canada after Trudeau criticizes detentions

BEIJING – China has responded by accusing Canada of not abiding by international norms after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Beijing for detaining two Canadians.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Friday called Trudeau’s remarks “purely unfounded countercharges that confound black and white.”

Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou — Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of its founder — on Dec. 1 at the request of the U.S, where she is wanted on fraud charges. In apparent retaliation just days later, China detained two Canadians on suspicion of stealing state secrets.

During a livestreamed conversation with Toronto Star reporters Thursday, Trudeau said China was “using arbitrary detention as a tool to achieve political goals.”

Geng responded that Canada was the one that arbitrarily detained Meng.