Ottawa: China's ambassador to Canada has accused the country of adopting "Western egotism" and "white supremacy" in its reaction to the detention of two Canadians following the arrest of a Huawei executive in Canada last month.

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou talks with a member of her private security detail after they went into a wrong building while arriving at a parole office in Vancouver. Credit:AP

The envoy said Canada is employing a double standard in demanding the release of two men who were detained in China nine days after the arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of US authorities. He also took aim at "elites" and "some in the Canadian news media" for saying that China's judicial system is less independent than Canada's.

"It seems that, to some people, only Canadian citizens shall be treated in a humanitarian manner and their freedom deemed valuable, while Chinese people do not deserve that," Lu Shaye wrote in an op-ed published in the Ottawa-based Hill Times newspaper on Wednesday. "The reason why some people are used to arrogantly adopting double standards is due to Western egotism and white supremacy."

"In such a context," he added, "the rule of law is nothing but a tool for their political ends and a fig leaf for their practicing hegemony in the international arena. What they have been doing is not showing respect for the rule of law, but mocking and trampling the rule of law."