U.S. President Joe Biden pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to release Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig during their Sept. 9 telephone call.

The call was the second between the two leaders and was billed at the time by both sides as an attempt to unlock the political stalemate between the two countries amid rising tensions.

The White House offered new details about Biden's involvement as it played down any link between the release of Spavor and Kovrig and last week's decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to abandon its extradition of Meng Wanzhou in a British Columbia court. 

Meng was arrested on Dec. 1, 2018, at Vancouver’s airport by the RCMP because the U.S. wanted to extradite her to face fraud charges, and the two Michaels were arrested nine days later in China in what is widely seen as retribution.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. Department of Justice is an independent agency and reached the decision to pursue a deferred prosecution agreement with the Huawei executive on its own.

But she said Biden pushed for the release of the two Canadian men, when he spoke to Xi by telephone on Sept. 9.

"He raised the two individuals, the two Michaels — who have been released, very positive news. It should not come as a surprise that President Xi raised the Huawei official, but again, there was no negotiation on this call," said Psaki. 

"These two leaders raised the cases of these individuals, but there was no negotiation about it. It was President Biden raising and pressing again for the release of these two Michaels, as is something that happens in every engagement we do with the Chinese — or had, up to this point in time."

The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed Monday that Xi also played a direct role in the case, which came to a stunning conclusion on Friday when Meng was allowed to return to China and the two Michaels were returned to Canada on simultaneous flights that departed at near identical moments.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying blasted Canada for aiding the U.S. in a "political frame-up and persecution against a Chinese citizen, an act designed to hobble Chinese high-tech companies as represented by Huawei."

Hua told her ministry's daily press briefing on Monday that Meng was "arbitrarily detained" by Canada — which is how Canada and its allies viewed the imprisonment of Kovrig and Spavor — and that her government, and its leader worked tirelessly to win her freedom.

"President Xi Jinping gave personal guidance," Hua said.

Hua also reiterated that Kovrig and Spavor endangered China's national security and she revealed that their freedom came because they "applied for release on bail for medical reasons."

Both men were convicted of espionage in closed, and highly criticized secretive trials earlier this year, with Spavor getting an 11-year sentence, while Kovrig was awaiting his fate.

A Chinese newspaper controlled by the Communist party, the Global Times, reported on Sunday that Kovrig and Spavor signed handwritten confessions before they were released.

Global Affairs Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment on either point.

But a former Canadian justice minister, and a leading international human rights advocate, said even if Kovrig and Spavor did sign confessions, they wouldn't have been worth the paper they were written on.

"I don't believe it took place. And I do know that when people are under not only detention as they were, but torture, in detention, sometimes under that torture, those things occur," said Irwin Cotler, the founder of Montreal's Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and a lawyer who has represented numerous political prisoners.

"But I'd say that if it did occur, the fingerprints are on China."

Meng was allowed to return to China after a New York judge approved the agreement Friday, and Spavor and Kovrig were on their way back to Canada that same night. 

Cotler said he does not believe the resolution of the case will embolden China's much-maligned practice of what has come to be known as "hostage diplomacy."

Cotler said the international support that Canada was able to build through its 60-plus country declaration against arbitrary detention has put China on notice that it can't get away with the practice.

"There's been a wake-up call that China has emerged as a major threat to the rules based international order," he said.

"I think this is a very important development. And I do hope that shadow of hostage diplomacy has been lifted. And now, the culture of impunity that accompanied it can be combated."

Psaki said the U.S. abandoning the Meng case should not be taken as evidence of a shifting foreign policy approach toward China. 

Republicans, most notably Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have criticized the agreement and want the White House to brief Congress on how it came about. 

"It may feel foreign to them that the Department of Justice is independent, but it is independent under this administration," Psaki said. 

"No one should read it as an impact on our substantive policy. This is a legal matter and a legal decision."

Psaki was unable to say whether Biden was aware that a deferred prosecution was in the works when he spoke with Xi earlier this month. 

"Our policy has not changed, our policy toward China," she said. 

"We're going to continue to hold (China) to account for its unfair economic practices, its course of actions around the world, and its human rights abuses. And we will continue to do that in partnership with our allies around the world."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2021.

Mike Blanchfield and James McCarten, The Canadian Press