Editor’s note for Tuesday, August 10, 2021

My thoughts today:

Today, a Chinese court upheld the death sentence of a Canadian man convicted of drug trafficking: Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison. But in 2019, he was retried and given a death sentence in a one-day retrial, about a month after the Canadian authorities arrested Mèng Wǎnzhōu 孟晚舟 by request from the U.S. government.

Tomorrow a verdict is also expected for Michael Spavor, one of two Canadian citizens awaiting verdicts in espionage trials widely thought to be prosecuted in retaliation for Meng’s arrest, although there is no word yet on the fate of the other detained Canadian, Michael Kovrig.

The final stretch of Meng’s extradition hearing is currently ongoing, and the new moves from the Chinese government appear to be to be signalling connected with Meng’s case.

In Hong Kong, the territory’s largest teachers union has announced it will disband, following pressure from the government, including pieces in the People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency calling the union a “poisonous tumour” that must be “eradicated.”

Our word of the day is Lithuania (立陶宛 lìtáowǎn).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief