OTTAWA—The Trudeau government asked the Trump administration to ensure China releases two detained Canadian men if — as U.S. President Donald Trump suggested last month — the U.S. drops Meng Wanzhou’s extradition request as part of negotiations for a trade deal with China, the Star has learned.A senior Canadian official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Star that the Trudeau government approached the Americans after Trump said in December he wouldn’t hesitate to intervene in the Meng affair if he could secure a better trade or security deal with China.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who spoke directly with Trump, and other officials in their dealings with the Americans, made it clear that if the U.S. was indeed going to use Meng’s extradition as a bargaining chip, the U.S. needed to make sure that the two Canadians who were taken in retaliation by China are released, according to the senior official who had knowledge of the talks.The insider said the American side agreed the two detained Canadians should be released, but no one in the administration admitted Meng is a pawn in a larger dispute, and the Canadian government still does not know for sure whether Trump was serious or was just trying to put the Chinese off-guard, the source said.In fact, “some kind of deal with China” was one of the possible outcomes to the uproar over Meng’s arrest that Canada’s Ambassador to China John McCallum laid bare in an extraordinary news conference on Tuesday.Read more:Opinion | Chantal Hébert: Ambassador McCallum’s flip-flop on Meng’s extradition case ramps up the pressure on OttawaCanada’s ambassador to China backs Meng’s chances of fighting extradition to the U.S.Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou has an extra passport that wasn’t listed in court records — and it’s only available to China’s eliteMcCallum apologized late Thursday for several of his remarks, say ...
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