Hostage diplomacy is the practice of making diplomatic negotiations over human lives taken captive by the involved parties. This barbaric custom traces back to the ancient world, where it was an essential part of guaranteeing armistice or goodwill between foreign relationships after conflicts.1 In ancient China, hostage diplomacy was used to ensure mutual trust between vassal states and the centralized monarchy. The Romans used it to increase the loyalty of conquered nations, and more recently, it was used by the British during their occupation of India.
However, in today's increasingly technologically advanced and interconnected world, it is absurd that such a barbaric practice is still put to use at even the most prominent stages of diplomacy. Foreigners are typically arrested by a government and held on trumped-up charges, which is usually in response to or results in a similar abduction by an opposing nation.
In 1979, the US Embassy in Tehran, comprising 52 United States diplomats and citizens, was held hostage by Iranian college students. The capture led to a diplomatic standoff, with the crisis growing as negotiations fell apart and international military forces were exerted. Although all 52 Americans were returned after 444 days of captivity, the event sent shockwaves across the world due to its outright violation of the modern rules of the Vienna convention. Still, at least 30 dual nationals have been captured in the last two years by Iran's IRGC.2
In Turkey, President Tayyip Erdoğan widely uses hostage diplomacy to this day.3 American evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson was imprisoned in 2016 for over a year without any charges. In 2017, Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan proposed to the US government to exchange a pastor for a preacher: Brunson for Fethullah Gülen, the founder of the Gulen movement in Turkey who had been self-exiling in Pennsylvania.
North Korea's oppressive human rights also allow for cases of hostage diplomacy, notably in the case of Otto Warmbier. Warmbier was arrested in Pyongyang International University for apparently trying to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel room and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a kangaroo court. Warmbier fell into a coma for reasons undisclosed by the North Korean government. After negotiations between the US and North Korean government, he was returned to the US, where he died.4 This is only one case among many foreign nationals detained in North Korea for undisclosed "crimes."
However, the most prominent current user of hostage diplomacy today by far is China. This practice began in 1967 when the CCP held 24 British diplomats and civilians as hostages, eventually released after 777 days of negotiation.5 In 2020, Australian news anchor Cheng Lei was arrested without cause of reason for apparently working against the Chinese state, with news of the arrest being kept a secret for weeks. Lei was formally arrested in 2021 for apparently supplying foreign nations with state secrets, and after multiple interrogations, is in deteriorating health. Lei remains captured to this day.6 In 2019, Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Henjun was arrested by the Chinese government under apparent Chinese suspicions of espionage for Australia and was interrogated hundreds of times while shackled and blindfolded. Yang was tried behind a dubious closed-door trial and remains in captivity.7
Recently, hostage diplomacy has entered the spotlight due to the media's situation dubbed "Meng and the 2 Michaels." Meng Wanzhou, the Chinese CFO of Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver International Airport due to accusations of financial fraud in violation of US sanctions. In a seemingly direct response, China arrested Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, 2 Canadians working internationally, on apparent espionage charges. Despite denials of a connection between the detainments, China's actions as a hostage diplomacy retaliation were obvious. This was made even more evident by Wanzhou, Spavor, and Kovrig's nearly simultaneous release earlier this year in 2021.8
Hostage diplomacy, while a blatant human rights violation due to its use of human lives as pawns for international interests, has undoubtedly been effective since its use in ancient times. Once China takes hostages, as seen with Meng Wanzhou and the 2 Michaels, China almost always gets what it wants - diplomatic, commercial, or other intentions.
However, suppose China wishes to maintain its narrative of being a nation on the "peaceful rise" in international dominance, becoming a world power without disturbing affairs9. In that case, they should stop engaging in hostage diplomacy. Since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan and the subsequent negative international media depictions of China, Chinese diplomacy has strikingly switched to a high-profile, aggressive nature - after having slowly grown into this new role since roughly 2010. The growing cases of Chinese hostage diplomacy are a part of this behavior. Accordingly, many nations worldwide feel threatened by China's new demeanor and seem reluctant to accept China's rise.10
This new attitude, dubbed "wolf warrior diplomacy," is unsustainable for China's progress and welcoming as a rising power, and hostage diplomacy is doing nothing but making it worse. It's shown that China has no regard for clear, established international standards of diplomacy of due process. The global views of China have resultantly deteriorated, reaching their all-time low nine days after Meng was released back to China.11 There are now calls for international collective pushback against China's economic coercion12, and Huawei has been damaged from repeated sanctions.13
China is not the only one suffering from engaging in hostage diplomacy. American and Canadian officials have received doubts from the public regarding whether or not they had actually made policy compromises with China to reach a solution.13
As President Biden stated regarding the issue, "Human beings are not bartering chips." It's time to end this barbaric practice and benefit everyone. Stopping hostage diplomacy is a step towards improving humanitarian standards around the world.
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