I don’t condone their arrests, but it was retaliatory for Canada arresting a huawei exec who had close ties to the party. One of those who was arrested alleged that the other was actively performing espionage in China. This was also confirmed by other unnamed sources.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-spavor-kovrig...

China freed the Michaels once Meng Wanzhou was released, which confirms it was all theatre.

We were punished for following the terms of our extradition treaty with the US. We even treated her super well, letting her stay under house arrest in her fancy Vancouver mansion. We did literally everything we could given the circumstances.