Three years after his release from captivity in China, Michael Kovrig has given his first public interview, describing the torment he endured at the hands of the communist regime. He described it as ”the most grueling, painful thing” he had ever experienced, a combination of solitary confinement, isolation, and relentless interrogation for hours each day. Kovrig admitted that he had overestimated the reasonableness of the Chinese Communist Party and underestimated their ruthlessness.
Kovrig’s detention in December 2018 is widely seen as a retaliatory move by Beijing following Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Meng was arrested in Vancouver at the request of US authorities who sought her extradition on charges of bank fraud related to misleading HSBC about Huawei’s connections to an Iranian subsidiary involved in violating US sanctions.
Kovrig recounted how a dozen “men in black” surrounded him and his partner near his apartment. They forcibly separated them, confiscated Kovrig’s phone, handcuffed him, and blindfolded him before pushing him into a black SUV. He estimated that they drove for about 45 minutes to a facility in southern Beijing where he was taken inside and faced with an interrogator who accused him of endangering China’s state security.
He spent nearly six months in solitary confinement without windows and endured prolonged interrogation sessions. Kovrig experienced physical stress such as being locked into a chair for hours on end and lost around 10 kil
