With China’s History of Arbitrary Detention of Canadians, Dissidents Warn Against Visa-Free Travel
Udumbara
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China watchers are warning against travel to China after Beijing said Canadians can travel there visa-free as Ottawa pursues closer ties with China.
Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Canada-based Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, reacted to the announcement that Canadian passport holders can now travel to China without a visa, saying Canadian citizens who have been detained in China should be released and returned home.
“To this day, Canada does not know whether he is alive or dead. No one has seen or spoken to him since his disappearance,” Tohti said, adding that if China is “serious about goodwill,” it should immediately grant visa-free entry to Celil’s wife and four children, who are Canadian citizens.
“If that is deemed ‘too difficult,’ then release Huseyin Celil immediately, issue a formal apology, provide compensation, and return him to Canada,” Tohti said.
Other Canadians Detained
China watchers are voicing concern about increasing travel to China, noting cases of other Canadian citizens being detained by the Chinese regime. Canadian Falun Gong practitioner Sun Qian was arbitrarily detained at her residence in Beijing in February 2017. In June 2020, she was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Beijing court for practising Falun Gong, and human rights groups noted she was forced to renounce her Canadian citizenship.
In the most high-profile case, Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained by Chinese authorities in 2018 for over 1,000 days. Their imprisonment was widely viewed as retaliation by Beijing following Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request in late 2018. Both Kovrig and Spavor were released in 2021 shortly after Meng’s release.
Seeking Closer Ties
Carney recently signed a series of agreements with Beijing while in China in January, in an effort to ease tariffs between the two countries and seek closer ties.After his trip to China, Carney said relations between Ottawa and Beijing had entered “a new area,” and that the two countries had entered a “strategic partnership.” This new approach to Canada-China relations represents a striking shift in tone from when Carney described China as Canada’s “biggest security threat” during the 2025 election campaign.
“Will you look them in the eye and tell them it is safe to travel? That they won’t be taken hostage for CCP extortion?” Majumdar said. “Or is your advice to these Canadians to curtail their conscience and their freedom in Canada instead?”
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Travel Restrictions
China previously used travel restrictions as a pressure tactic, leaving Canada off its list of approved destination countries for group tours in 2023.However, as Ottawa began seeking closer ties with China in late 2025, Beijing lifted this restriction and allowed group tour operators to resume travel to Canada last November.
China has also used travel restrictions against other nations, such as by keeping Taiwan off its list of approved destinations amid Beijing’s takeover ambitions. Additionally, China banned all group tours to South Korea in 2017 after Seoul deployed a U.S. defence system, which Beijing worried could penetrate Chinese territory.
Beijing also warned the public against travelling to Australia in 2020, citing racial discrimination and violence in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, but didn’t give any specific examples. Australia rejected China’s accusations, which came amid accusations by Australia that China was meddling in its affairs.
