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... instead of a legitimate case relating to international sanctions against Iran, Canada now can be plausibly accused of holding a Chinese citizen hostage so that Trump can gain leverage at the negotiating table.

It is not an axiom of international diplomacy that “no good deed goes unpunished,” but perhaps it should be, especially deeds undertaken on behalf of our dear ally the United States under its bumbling leader, Donald Trump.

Last week, two Canadians were detained by security agencies in China, questioned and thrown into gulags. As this column was being written, Ottawa still knew little about their fate and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was in Washington for meetings with the valued ally.

The two arrests, if that’s the right word, followed Canada’s lawful detention Dec. 1 of a Chinese national, Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the giant Huawei technology firm and daughter of its billionaire founder. The U.S. government accuses Meng of helping Iran evade sanctions related to its nuclear program. Canada was asked to hold her for transfer to the U.S. under a mutual extradition treaty. It should have been a fairly routine matter for Canadian border agents to detain Meng at the Vancouver airport and notify the Americans that they had her.

It wasn’t routine for the Chinese, who immediately threatened “severe consequences” for the arrest. Hours later, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who is on leave from the foreign affairs department and working for a non-governmental organization.

In Vancouver, Meng’s lawyers posted $10 million bail and she retreated to a family-owned house in the city. Her case appeared entirely legal and in order. Then Trump butted in.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump linked Meng’s arrest to ongoing trade and tariff disagreements between China and the U.S., suggesting he would intervene in her case if it led to progress in the trade talks.

“If I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made . . . I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary,” the president said, evidently pleased with his diplomatic suavity. So instead of a legitimate case relating to international sanctions against Iran, Canada now can be plausibly accused of holding a Chinese citizen hostage so that Trump can gain leverage at the negotiating table.

Just guess what happened next. China grabbed the second Canadian, businessman Michael Spavor, who also disappeared into the bowels of the Chinese security apparatus. Like Kovrig, Spavor is accused of unspecified “activities that endanger the national security" of China.

Clearly, this is no way to conduct international affairs. If this kind of Taliban tactic carries on, what is to stop any country from abducting foreign visitors and using them as bargaining chips? This is a Saddam Hussein move, or a North Korean one. Now, Trump has endorsed it as a way of getting what he wants from the Chinese. And as happens so often with the fumbling Trump, his intervention produced nothing useful. It failed to bolster sanctions against Iran, which was the original point of Meng’s detention. It failed to support the rule of law in the U.S. or Canada. If anything, it undermined it.

In making a mockery of a good-faith effort to comply with a legal request from his country, Trump exposed Canada to the wrath of the unaccountable Chinese leadership. Those men, operating in secret, seem determined to export their coercive influence around the world, with money as their weapon of choice.

Now Canadian farmers, lumber producers and other exporters are worried they’ll get dragged into the undertow of the burgeoning U.S.-China trade war. Canadian banks and insurance firms have been making inroads in China and they too must be wondering about the safety of their investments.

It’s tempting to say that this diplomatic tussle will go the way of so many others, with the heat gradually reduced and order restored. Maybe so.

But in the meantime, Canada must find ways to work around Trump lest he pull us deeper into his undertow. Here’s a suggestion: Next time when the Americans call, don’t answer the phone.