The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Marc Garneau have made unwarranted remarks on China's relevant court's verdict on the case of the Canadian defendant Michael Spavor and groundless accusations against China, which grossly interfered in China's judicial sovereignty and seriously breached international law and basic norms governing international relations. Such accusations are extremely unreasonable, extremely absurd and extremely arrogant, over which we express our great indignation and strongest condemnation.

On 11 August, Dandong Intermediate People's Court held the first-instance open trial on the case of Michael Spavor in accordance with the law, and found him guilty of secretly gathering state secrets and illegally providing state secrets to foreign forces. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, confiscation of 50,000 Chinese yuan of his personal property and deportation. The relevant court handled the case in strict accordance with the law, fully protected Michael Spavor's litigation rights, respected and honored the Canadian side's consular rights such as visiting and receiving notification, and arranged for the Canadian side to attend the trial. China is a country under the rule of law. Chinese judicial organs handle cases independently in accordance with the law. There is no such thing as "arbitrary detention" at all. On the contrary, the Canadian side, disregarding the political nature of the Meng Wanzhou incident and acting as an accomplice of the US side, has detained Ms. Meng, an innocent Chinese citizen who violates no Canadian law at all, for nearly 1,000 days. This is arbitrary detention in every sense of the term.

For some time, the Canadian side has been hyping up the Canadian citizens' cases, engaging in "megaphone diplomacy", and ganging up in an attempt to put pressure on China. This is totally in vain. Recently, the Canadian side gathered a handful of diplomats from western countries in China to support it with regards to the case of Michael Spavor, and even defended the convicted Canadian drug trafficker, putting on a clumsy political show, which is utterly despicable. In fact, during the recent 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council, more than 90 countries supported China's position and opposed the interference in China's internal affairs by Canada and other western countries. This represents the just voice of the international community!

The Chinese side urges the Canadian side to clearly grasp the current situation, earnestly respect China's judicial sovereignty, stop applying double standards on legal issues, and stop slandering and attacking China so as to avoid bringing further damage to China-Canada relations.