On Sunday, August 30, my feature article was published on the largest Canadian online news site. “Canadian Michael Kovrig’s grandfather, a Hungarian journalist, also went to China — and helped free his countrymen trapped a long way from home”
The story of Hungarian-Canadian journalist János Kovrig, grandfather of imprisoned ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig also appeared in print in Canada’s second highest-circulation daily newspaper the Toronto Star. Michael Kovrig is currently detained in China with alleged espionage. His imprisonment is widely believed to be retaliation for Canadian involvement in the US-China Huawei feud.
János Kovrig, just like his grandson, had a formative relationship with China, albeit a very different one. He launched his career right by the time when the Sino-Japanese conflicts got really hot in the 1930s. You can read more about his adventures across three continents, the “forgotten Hungarians of Manchuria” and his flight to Canada from his internment after his arrest by the Hungarian communist secret police.