‘Hostage diplomacy’ spat between China and Canada hits home

For years Jeff Ball, the president of a 20,000-cattle beef production company in southern Alberta, has been pushing their high-end Wagyu brand into China, visiting often to set up a network of distributors on the ground.

Those trips have come to an abrupt end, however, after a diplomatic spat between Canada and China has made a market that once seemed the most viable alternative to the United States much more fraught. The arrests of two Canadian men in China shortly after Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver, British Columbia, in December are widely perceived here as a form of “hostage diplomacy.” And they have altered the paths of Canadian farmers, ranchers, businesspeople, and professors.

“I decided to stop going there. It’s not worth it,” Mr. Ball says. “You just don’t know what local law enforcement would do.”

The arrest of Ms. Meng on an extradition request by

China’s movesFrom the U.S. vantage pointCanadians’ opinion