Even by PRC standards, Xiao’s mistreatment is extraordinary, and any pretense to now resort to a belated “trial” in an effort to legitimize what has been done to him makes a farce of the Chinese legal system. Xiao’s brazen kidnapping from his Hong Kong hotel home five and a half years ago was a warning to all that Hong Kong was no longer a safe haven from the reach of Beijing’s secret police. Since then, at least until recently, he has been held in military captivity without any pretext of legal authority. Canada has proved helpless in assisting this Canadian citizen and his family, and the PRC has shamelessly violated the Sino-Canadian consular agreement (Not for the first time–recall the recent cases of the “two Michaels”). It seems evident that Canadian consular officials were banned from attending today’s “trial” even though their government, in its embarrassment, has not admitted this latest PRC violation. We do not even know what Xiao has been charged with. For the Canadian Government to withhold from the public what it knows on the ground that it is protecting Xiao’s privacy is ludicrous.
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Jerome Cohen (孔杰荣) is a professor at NYU School of Law and co-director of its U.S.-Asia Law Institute. Here you can find his lifelong work and amazing stories on Asia and law as well as many resources for Chinese legal studies.
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