* Court to choose date for verdict in Michael Spavor's case
* Spavor one of two Canadians charged by China with spying
* China denies access to diplomats on national security grounds
* Trial coincides with U.S.-China talks in Alaska (Adds Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's comment)
By Martin Quin Pollard and David Ljunggren
DANDONG, China/OTTAWA, March 19 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday criticized China for blocking access to the trial of Michael Spavor, a Canadian detained by Beijing since late 2018 on spying charges, a case that is part of a wider diplomatic spat between Washington and Beijing.
Spavor and his lawyer appeared at a hearing on Friday and the court will later set a date to issue a verdict, the Dandong Intermediate People's Court said in a statement on its website.
China arrested Spavor and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig in December 2018, soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech company Huawei Technologies, on a U.S. warrant.
Chinese courts have a conviction rate of over 99%. Canadian and other diplomats were not allowed to attend the trial on what China said were national security grounds, according to a Canadian envoy.
Trudeau condemned the "arbitrary detention" of Spavor and Kovrig, and said the "lack of transparency around these court proceedings" was "completely unacceptable."
"Our top priority remains securing their release," Trudeau added at an Ottawa news conference.
Spavor, a 45-year-old Canadian businessman, was not seen outside the court and there was no word on his condition.
Beijing insists the detentions are not linked to the arrest of Meng, who remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights extradition to the United States.
Kovrig, a former diplomat, is due to go on trial on Monday in Beijing.
Police set up a cordon on Friday morning outside the court, which sits along the Yalu River opposite North Korea, the isolated country that Spavor regularly visited in his business career.
Officials from the Canadian embassy and other nations including United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Australia, Sweden and Germany were present outside the court as they sought access to the hearing. They were not allowed to enter.
Jim Nickel, charge d'affaires at the Canadian embassy in China who spoke outside the Dandong courthouse, said Canadian officials last saw Spavor on Feb. 3 and had made multiple requests to see him ahead of the trial, but those requests were denied.