Second Canadian may have been detained in China as diplomatic spat intensifies

Michael Spavor is "being investigated" on suspicion of "activities that endangered China's national security," according to information published by Chinese state media and attributed to the State Security Bureau of Dandong, a city in the country's northeast.

Spavor is the founder of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, a company that helps to facilitate trips to North Korea. He had previously assisted in helping former NBA player Dennis Rodman travel to Pyongyang to meet Kim Jong Un, the country's leader.

News of the investigation comes shortly after Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland acknowledged that Chinese authorities had detained Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat who now works for the International Crisis Group (ICG) as its northeast Asia senior adviser.

Kovrig has also been accused of engaging in "activities that harm China's national security" and is "under investigation," according to an article in Chinese state-run newspaper Beijing News published Wednesday.

Both men were placed under investigation on December 10, according to state media reports.

Spavor is believed to have contacted Canadian consular officials to alert to them to the fact he had been questioned by Chinese authorities earlier this week. Government sources tell CNN Spavor was questioned at an airport.

"We have not been able to make contact with him since he let us know about this," Freeland said Wednesday afternoon. "We are working very hard to ascertain his whereabouts, and we have raised this case with the Chinese authorities, and we are in touch with his family."

Spavor did not answer his cell phone or respond to messages on WeChat, a popular Chinese messaging app, when CNN tried to get in touch with him Thursday.

Experts are concerned that Kovrig and Spavor are being held in retaliation to Canada's arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive at Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, in Vancouver earlier this month.

Meng, who is the daughter of the Huawei founder, is accused of helping her company dodge US sanctions on Iran, according to Canadian prosecutors. She has been released on bail while a Canadian court decides whether to extradite her to the United States to face charges there.

Andrei Lankov, a professor at South Korea's Kookmin University and an expert in North Korean and East Asian affairs, said it appears that China and Canada are engaged in a "hostage game."

"I'm a bit surprised they (the Chinese government) chose Michael, who is from very humble origins," Lankov said. "He's definitely not the son of a CEO of a major Canadian company."

Lankov, who has known Spavor for 10 years, described the Canadian as a likable, easy going, charismatic man from humble origins who wasn't much interested in international politics.

"He sees North Korea as a misrepresented underdog, and as such he wanted to basically improve its image while making some money in the process," Lankov said.

Lankov said China could also be attempting to send a secondary signal by detaining two Westerners who travel to mainland China often for business involving North Korea.

"Historically, China was remarkable willing to overlook a great deal of North Korea activity of all kinds ... happening on Chinese territory," Lankov said.

"(That) is obviously coming to an end."

'China's national interests'

The Chinese government has detained foreign employees of nongovernmental organizations in the past. In January 2016, Swedish human rights advocate Peter Dahlin was taken into custody for three weeks.

China has since passed legislation further restricting what foreign NGOs can do on Chinese soil. The organizations are required to register with the government and are prohibited from endangering "China's national unity, security, or ethnic unity; and must not harm China's national interests, societal public interest."

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on Kovrig's case Wednesday but said if ICG personnel were operating in China, they would have been in violation of Chinese law.

Hugh Pope, the director of communications and outreach for ICG, said his organization has "still received no information about Michael (Kovrig) from China directly since his detention on 10 December and we are above all concerned for his health and safety."

Pope said the ICG closed its Beijing office in December 2016 to comply with the new law.

Kovrig joined the ICG in 2017 and works from Hong Kong, which operates under a different legal framework than the rest of mainland China. He regularly visits Beijing "to meet officials, attend conferences at the invitation of Chinese organizations, and on personal visits," said Pope.

"Frankly, we were really surprised by this arrest after a decade of engagement with the Chinese authorities. This is the first time we hear such an accusation. Our Board of Trustees includes two Chinese board members," Pope said.

"It goes without saying that neither Crisis Group, nor did Michael have anything to do with the Huawei case in Canada. What is clear to us is that Michael has been doing what all Crisis Group experts do: undertaking objective and impartial research -- in his case meeting with Chinese officials so that we can represent their views in our work and developing policies that can help end conflicts."

In a statement Sunday, China's vice minister of foreign affairs, Le Yucheng, called Meng's arrest "lawless, reasonless and ruthless."

CNN's Ivan Watson, Yong Xiong, Paula Newton, Yazhou Sun, Nicole Gaouette and Ben Westcott contributed to this report

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