Ottawa Citizen: Canada limited in helping woman arrested in China

Canada wants an urgent explanation from the Chinese government on the arrest and detention of a Montreal woman during a visit to her parents in southern China.

But the Canadian government has limited options to help 35-year-old Ying Zhu because she is not a Canadian citizen, says a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs. Mrs. Zhu is a permanent resident of Canada.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs has been informed of the arrest, and the Canadian Consular General in the city of Guangzhou has been instructed to contact the Chinese authorities to establish where Mrs. Zhu is and why she has been detained," Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Marie-Christine Lilkoff said yesterday.

"Since Mrs. Zhu is not a Canadian citizen, the Canadian government can only request the co-operation of the Chinese authorities. We won't have access to her."

Ms. Lilkoff explained that under the Vienna Convention, which guides international relations and diplomacy, countries are allowed access to their citizens when they are arrested in a foreign country. That right however, does not extend to permanent residents or landed immigrants like Mrs. Zhu.

Ms. Lilkoff said based on past experience, Foreign Affairs has issued travel advisories warning Canadian travellers to be very careful if they visit China on Chinese travel documents. They are warned that it would be very difficult to give them consular assistance if they get into trouble because they are regarded as Chinese citizens.

Mrs. Zhu disappeared on May 10 during a trip to visit her parents in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Mrs. Zhu's friends said she was arrested near the city of Guangzhou, a two-hour train ride from Hong Kong. They have not heard from her since.

"I am really worried about her safety, I am really anxious. I know how the Chinese regime treats Falun Gong practitioners," Mrs. Zhu's travelling companion, Zhili Li, told reporters through an interpreter in Montreal yesterday.

Ms. Li said Mrs. Zhu had planned to visit her husband and parents in Guangzhou after arriving by train. Ms. Li planned to visit her own family in Beijing and the two were scheduled to take different trains from Hong Kong.

"She was waiting for her train. That is the last time we saw each other," Ms. Li said.

Ms. Li was stopped at the mainland Chinese border and deported, but Mrs. Zhu appears to have been arrested after crossing the border, Ms. Li said.

Prior to the trip, Mrs. Zhu joined a pro-Falun Gong demonstration in Hong Kong.

On Thursday, the Hong Kong Human Rights Information Centre confirmed that Mrs. Zhu had been arrested and is one of tens of thousands of Chinese citizens being detained for practising Falun Gong.

This is the second time in a year a Montrealer has been arrested for ties to Falun Gong. Last summer, former Montrealer KunLun Zhang -- who holds both Chinese and Canadian citizenship, was arrested for practising Falun Gong and imprisoned in a labour camp. He had been in China since 1996. He was released earlier this year.

With files from Reuters , on the eve of a Team Canada trade mission to China after pressure from the international media and pressure from Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley.

Ms. Lilkoff said the Canadian government has on many occasions, expressed concern about the suppression of freedom in China and will continue to do so. She would not comment on what the government will do if the Chinese government refuse to cooperate on Mrs. Zhu's whereabouts.

"This has just happened. We are not there yet," she said.