I'm sure that it's retaliation over the Huawei arrest. But those two aren't exactly innocent tourists.[0] And I'm sure that the Chinese could make passable arguments for their detention. Espionage is a difficult charge to disprove.

0) https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/biographical-...

This is what a lot of people don't realize, no matter what country you are in, you are always guilty of something.

I'm an American, in America, and I'm 100% certain that I'm in violation of at least one of the over 40,000 laws and regulations that exist on the federal level. (And that doesn't even count the state and local laws and ordinances.)

Here's the thing though, I have no idea which laws and regulations I'm currently in violation of.

So all a country has to do is pick someone. Just arrest them, and assuming a sufficiently complex legal system, whoever they arrest will be in violation of some law. As regular people we just can't help it. We have no ability to maintain an awareness of every law and regulation we are subject to and stay in compliance with them.

So if you're Canadian or American, and you're not someone with the resources or clout to protect yourself from all of this, I'd strongly urge you to consider business models that allow you to operate at a distance from Asia. No one wants to be the dumb patsy sitting in a Chinese prison for 10 years because China and the US want to throw temper tantrums with each other.

That's a viewpoint of a bullshit legal system of thugs, based on the accused being guilty until proven innocent.

Actually, that's a pretty common standard. It's more or less a part of legal systems based on the Napoleonic Code. Defendants are basically treated as guilty until proven innocent. Don't get arrested in Mexico, for example, unless you can pay good bribes.

And actually, now in the UK you can be jailed for refusing to provide decryption keys or passphrases. We just saw the new policy in India. And things are heading that way in the US. Also, those charged with politically incorrect offenses are more and more treated as guilty until proven innocent.

So anyway, claiming moral superiority is an iffy proposition.

I'm not as well educated on these events as I'd like to be. Can anyone point to some unbiased (as much as possible) sources on what charges the Huawei CFO was arrested for, and what charges the Canadians in China were arrested for?

On the face of it the arrests read like blatent retaliation from China, but I'd like to know more about the full circumstances.

China have introduce very strict rules for NGO last year: http://www.chinafile.com/ngo/latest/fact-sheet-chinas-foreig...

Basically, a foreign NGO need to register with the government to continue their work in China.

Some of the NGO is still working on getting the approval. These two Canadians were working with one of those NGO.

>Can anyone point to some unbiased ... sources ...

"No", is the short answer.

You simply have to read the position of all sides, and then make your own decisions. Any source that people will point you to, is going to be biased in some fashion.

From a Canadian viewpoint, the CFO has not committed any crime. She was arrested at the request of the US, for fraud charges related to export restrictions. As far as I know, no exact charge has been specified, either in Canada or in the US.

In Canada she is attempting to prevent getting extradited.

>As far as I know, no exact charge has been specified, either in Canada or in the US.

it's fraud https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/7/18131188/huawei-cfo-fraud...

Technically the canadians are in jail for working illegally in China.