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Canadian authorities might have guessed how China would respond to the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

In 2014, after Canada arrested Chinese businessman Su Bin, wanted in the U.S. on espionage charges, China seized Christian aid workers Kevin and Julia Garratt. They were held in isolation cells with lights that never went off: for six months, in her case, more than two years in his.

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Now the pattern has been repeated, with the disappearance of first Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat now working in China with the non-profit International Crisis Group, then Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur known for promoting tourism and trade with North Korea.

There is no use calling this anything but what it is: kidnapping. Official claims that Kovrig and Spavor engaged in activities that “endanger the national security” of China are as spurious as the accusations of spying against the Garratts. Certainly no evidence has been produced against them, nor is there any reason to expect any. There is no due process in China, no independent judiciary, no right of habeas corpus. Canadian authorities were only granted consular access to Kovrig four days after his detention. It’s not clear they even know where Spavor is.