Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, said Sarah McIver’s detention was “more routine” than those of a diplomat and businessman Adrian Wyld/APA teacher feared to have been the third person held in China as part of a growing diplomatic row with Canada was only detained because she had been working illegally in the country, Beijing said today. Sarah McIver, from Alberta, was held over a visa problem, Beijing said, dismissing concerns that her detention was a tit-for-tat measure over the arrest of a Chinese businesswoman in Canada. China’s foreign ministry said Ms McIver’s case was different to that of two other Canadians — Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur who worked in North Korea — both of whom face the more serious charge of endangering national security. Ms McIver had been teaching in China where it is not uncommon for foreigners to…

Source: The Times December 20, 2018 12:00 UTC