Prime Minister Trudeau’s rejection of a deal with China over the detention of two Canadians has lent a significant twist to the extradition battle over Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

A few days earlier 19 former diplomats and politicians argued in a letter to Trudeau that “[r]emoving the pressures of the extradition proceeding and the related imprisonment of the two Michaels [former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor] will clear the way for Canada to freely decide and declare its position on all aspects of the Canada-China relationship.”

Instead he warned that intervention by the federal justice minister – who has the power to dismiss the proceedings against Meng – would embolden China, or any other country, into thinking that “all they have to do to get leverage over the Canadian government is randomly arrest a couple of Canadians.”

Last year while criticising countries which were too closely aligned with the One Belt, One Road initiative the European Commission described China as “an economic competitor in pursuit of technological leadership and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance.”

On the other hand, Trudeau’s resistance to China is a powerful reminder that not all “models of governance” are equal and that liberal democracies with independent judiciaries, freedom of speech and other anti-authoritarian encumbrances, are worth defending.