Chinese authorities have blocked Canadian government representatives from attending the trial of Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua (肖建華), the Canadian embassy said yesterday.
Xiao, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was due to go on trial in China on Monday, and Canadian consular officials had been pressing for consular access, the embassy said earlier in a statement.
“Canada made several requests to attend the trial proceedings,” Nadia Scipio del Campo, public diplomacy counselor at the embassy, said in an e-mailed statement. “Our attendance was denied by Chinese authorities.”
When asked for details, such as to confirm the location of the trial,