Huawei's chief financial officer (CFO) Meng Wanzhou. Photo: VCG

China's Foreign Ministry on Friday denounced the US and Canada for "arbitrarily" detaining Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou out of political motives, and urged other countries to prevent themselves from falling into the US trap. 

It's the US and Canada that arbitrarily detained Chinese citizens, and the two countries out of political motives abused their bilateral extradition treaty and seriously infringed on the legal rights of Chinese, which the international community clearly saw, Geng Shuang, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a routine press conference on Friday. 

The two countries were in tune with each other and turned black into white. The US cooked up Meng's case and suppressed China's high-tech enterprises using state power, while the Canadian side has played a very disgraceful role, Geng said. 

Geng's remarks were made in response to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's comments on Meng's case during his first official visit to Ottawa on Thursday.

In a meeting with the press with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, Pompeo claimed that China sees Meng's case and the detention of two Canadians in China as equivalent, and accused China for "arbitrarily" detaining the two Canadians. 

Geng said that the two cases were totally different, as Meng's case was a serious political incident but Michael John Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained on suspicion of jeopardizing China's national security. 

Kovrig is suspected of spying and stealing national secrets for foreign agents and was detained by the Beijing State Security Bureau, and Spavor, who has been under investigation by the Dandong State Security Bureau in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, was suspected of stealing and illegally providing state secrets. 

The two Canadians' detention came after Canada's arrest of Meng at the request of the US. 

Pompeo also claimed that the US is helping the two Canadians get released, and he said that "China needs to honor the commitments it's made to the world."

In response, Geng said China is a country ruled by law, and Chinese judicial organs handle cases independently according to law and guarantee the legal rights of Canadian citizens in accordance with the law, which other countries cannot interfere in.  

"The case involving Canadians has nothing to do with the US, and the US should not make irresponsible remarks about it," Geng said. He urged the countries concerned to respect the spirit of the rule of law and China's judicial sovereignty and end their double standards on legal issues.

"We once again urge Canada and the US to take seriously China's solemn stance, correct mistakes, immediately release Meng and ensure her safe return to China," Geng said.

The US and Canada have also been repeatedly making irresponsible remarks on Hong Kong affairs. 

In the latest example, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote an op-ed titled "We Stand with Hong Kong," in which he said that the Hong Kong turmoil was the result of Beijing's systematic ratcheting up of its domestic oppression, and its pursuit of hegemony abroad.

Geng said at Friday's press conference that US politicians did not condemn the recent violent crimes in Hong Kong and reflect on their country's wrong actions in interfering in Hong Kong affairs. Instead, they criticized the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government for stopping the violence and restoring order, and slandered China's social system and policies.

"This practice of publicly inciting violent confrontation, interfering in other countries' internal affairs and deliberately provoking China's relations with other countries is unacceptable," Geng said. 

"For those who smeared Hong Kong affairs, I give you President Abraham Lincoln's words: 'You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time,'" Geng said.

Also on Friday, The Canadian consulate in Hong Kong halted travel to Chinese mainland for its local staff. 

Geng said he respects Canada's move but warned that those with ill intentions should be extra careful in China. 

"The gentleman is always poised while the petty man always frets," Geng said.