The Two Michaels: Innocent Canadian Captives and High Stakes Espionage in the US-China Cyber War

by Mike Blanchfield, Fen Osler Hampson

Landing in Vancouver on a flight from Hong Kong on December 2018, Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested by Canadian authorities with an American extradition warrant. The US Department of Justice accused Meng of fraud and bypassing sanctions against Iran. Nine days later, in an act of retaliation, China arrested two Canadians--Michael Spavor, a trade consultant, and Michael Kovrig, a peace advocate--charging them with spying.

Imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured, the Two Michaels became hostages in a tense showdown between China and the United States over not only the Meng extradition but whether East or West will control the future of the internet.

In this timely and essential book, journalist Mike Blanchfield and international affairs expert Fen Hampson combine groundbreaking original reporting and keen analysis to tell this gripping an ongoing story of cyber espionage, life-and-death diplomacy, and global superpowers in conflict.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Canada, History, China, Current Affairs, International Relations

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 17, 2021

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting case with reasonable arguments on both sides regarding whether the justice minister should have intervened to expedite the release of two imprisoned Canadian citizens. I appreciated that Blanchfield presented the different legal arguments without trying to impose his personal views on the reader.

For a small book, it does an excellent job of providing historical context for the Canada-China relationship, the Huawei tech landscape, economic trade implications, and the personal backgrounds of the Michaels.

[Ron Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t often read non-fiction, preferring instead the narrative arc of fiction. This book, however, does a really wonderful job of employing simple storytelling techniques - engaging quotes, anecdotes about political gaffes, and first hand accounts form many of the players involved - to deliver a compelling narrative about two innocent Canadians who were imprisoned by China for nearly three years as pawns in a larger cold war over technology and cyber security. I now have a much greater understanding about WHY this entire nightmarish situation played out the way it did - not that knowing makes it any easier to forgive China, let alone Canada or the US for their roles in the affair. None of the political players in the saga come out completely untarnished.

The authors break down the facets of the case with each well-researched chapter diving into a different aspect - some directly related to the prisoners' situations, some tangentially so, like an exploration about why Huawei’s efforts to develop 5G WiFi were so relevant, and still others only obliquely related, like the overview of several decades of Canada-China relations. Taken together, these pieces deliver, in a very conversational way, a well-defined story about what exactly led to the incident and how it was eventually resolved.

I don’t promise that reading this will spur me to read more non-fiction in the future, but it certainly won’t dissuade me either. This is a solid four stars, maybe even 4.5.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent political book, really interesting read.

Great book on foreign policy. Learned a lot.

A lot of the book covers Meng and the accounts that led to the two Michaels being held captive. I found the journalism by Blanchfield very well done. The research and the recommendations and points were very strong and interesting to read.

Although a fairly short book, this book does a great job at covering all the main points and I would recommend it!

Summary
Glad they're home.
If either of the Michaels write a memoir, I'll be one of the first to grab it. Really waiting and wanting to hear more of their perspective.

4.8/5

[Melanie Burger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this while travelling through China on vacation, and finished it on my exit flight out. To this day, Canada cautions its citizens (like myself) that they are at risk of arbitrary detention if they go to China, so going through airport security is more stressful than it usual was for me. In fact, I would say that it’s hard to be fully at ease as a tourist in China in general for this reason, which is a pity because the country and its people have so much to offer.

I would definitely recommend this book to any Canadian who decides to visit though, in order to be aware of the greater political context of their visit.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling narration of one of Canada's most serious hostage crisis. To my mind, this incident was as much of a violation as the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, even though there were only two hostages involved.

This was purely a revenge against Canada's holding of Meng Wahzhou, a genuine criminal who broke United States law and was awaiting extradition in accordance with international law and extradition treaties.

In the end, no matter what the government said, it was a pure hostage exchange, plain and simple.

China is a rogue nation that deserves to be ostracized from the community of nations - no trade, no technological sharing, no educating their best and brightest in our best universities.

Instead, money trumps ethics, and we continue to be polite to this dictatorial regime.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was meticulously and thoroughly research but not a slow difficult read, as might be expected from this type of book. It reinforces the challenges faced by global citizens in a world where everyone has a different playbook; moreover, Canada's politics are certainly not those of the U.S. or China. A true story recommended for political junkies.

[Neil McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glad to have read and will allow me to put a cork in this multiple year real life political saga.

China 100% did the correct thing to support it citizen, I am disappointed in Canada to have allowed itself to become Americans lackie. 😕

[EE · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid accounting of the dramatic story from start to finish, with lots of insight and detail from key political players.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew that "the two Michaels" were being held by the Chinese government and charged with espionage because the Canadian government had acceded to an American request to hold the CFO of the Huawei corporation and arrange to have her extradited to the U.S. to face charges that she had facilitated the sale of technical knowledge and equipment to Iran. I really don't care much about fancy new phones and artificial intelligence especially as I don't have much trouble in finding my own words to express ideas. I knew that there was some sort of complicated business behind all this, though, so I borrowed this book from the library. I learned more about the 5G networks and the role of the Chinese company and government in its development than anything else but of course the whole matter of hostages and how their release should be achieved had to be discussed, as did the fact that the Chinese government really does not seem to understand that treaty obligations are just that and our governments cannot interfere in the actions of the judicial system. I grant you that Mrs. Wilson-Raybold might have a slight difference of opinion there and there is a situation in which the government minister can step in to stop the extradition process. Still, did the Canadian government want to have either of those two governments angry with us? As it was, we had the Chinese government ban the importation to China of several meat products, canola oil, and soy beans. These are major products and now the agricultural sector could become angry. When you throw in American fear of Huawei products and systems providing unsuspected backdoor access to those who want to learn American security secrets. The Americans seem more concerned than most of Europe, although there is concern there as well.
It all got more and more complicated and then there was COVID and comparisons were made between the detention conditions in Vancouver (house detention in her own elaborate Vancouver home) and the detention of the two Canadians (windowless cells, no exercise opportunity save what they could manage in their cells, and no access to computers or the internet)
The authors followed the case as part of their journalistic jobs and talked to everyone else who covered it. I didn't know that Michael Kovrig had been a low level diplomat at several Canadian embassies and that he had also briefly been in a rock band in the Ukraine.There is a definite attempt to put the Chinese case clearly and fairly as well as the Canadian and western one and I certainly wish our government had acted more strongly and not tried to please everybody. That may be the Canadian Way, though, get everyone to see everyone else's point of view and bring everyone to a consensus. I'd like to think so, otherwise they just wallowed around doing not a whole lot.
Great book, gives you all the background, the feelings of the two families and how the two men, who never met until they were on the plane home, managed to keep themselves from going crazy, all the people from a number of nations became involved in negotiations and how they came home.

[Jason Jean · Rating 1 out of 5]

The authors try their best to maintain the Canadian reporting narrative on the two Michaels. They neglect to mention key details, such as: how Justin Trudeau lied about Michael Kovrig having "diplomatic immunity" when he was arrested; that the International Crisis Group refused to register with the authorities in Mainland China as per their NGO laws, so Kovrig was knowingly working for an illegal organization in China at the time of his arrest (it was therefore obviously not "arbitrary", nor was he "innocent"); and they neglected to mention how all Canadian media considered every arrest of a Canadian after Meng Wanzhou's arrest as potential "retaliation" - throughout the month of December, 2018 thirteen arrests were counted as possible retaliatory arrests by China, which was then whittled down to three, and then finally to two.

As this information is all publicly available in Canadian news agency reporting, one can only assume that these authors are not conducting any sort of definitive analysis of the issues, and are instead seeking to promote the faulty Canadian media narrative above all else.

[Derrick Grose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Two Michaels stirs up memories of the newspaper headlines through the years from the time of the arrest on an American extradition request of Meng Wanzhou and continuing through the liberation of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. The book effectively reviews the events and the people involved but it did not connect me to them or reveal anything that I could not have found in the newspaper clippings: this is successful as journalism but not as literature.

[Vince Carlo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty boring read, just goes over the same thing repeatedly. Not much more insightful than a wikipedia read about the topic. The book also completely neglects to mention the legitimate accusations of spying. In 2023, Spavor accused Kovrig of using him for espionage, which lead to a $7 million payment from the Government of Canada. This book doesn't discuss that, and was perhaps rushed to publication too soon, only 2 months after they were released.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I have read many books about Canada relationship with China recently. They are really good and gave a comprehensive history of what happened and the current state of affairs. The report on foreign interference is due today. I can't wait to hear what it says.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

More focused on the Cyber War than the Michaels which I didn’t expect. Still interesting though.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating topic, but the authors offer a flawed delivery on that topic.

The story of the Two Michaels is interesting, and when the authors stick to the topic, the book is quite good. They clearly did their research and have good reportage.

However, these authors are also clearly more familiar with Ottawa than Beijing. They often make comments that show their ignorance of China.

A larger problem is that, when discussing Canadian governments, their rhetoric occasionally veers into bombastic language, as if they have an ideological ax to grind with particular Canadian governments.

A stronger book would have dialed down the rhetoric and let the facts speak for themselves, rather than banging on some of the residents of Ottawa who they disagree with.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good!

Well done.
I could have used a little more character development on both of the Michaels… they still blended together a bit in my mind and I kept having to remind myself which was which.
Narration was fine, except for the way China was pronounced (almost spit out, with derision, like Trump says it, hence I was constantly reminded of Trump!)

I listened to the Audible Audiobook