US alleges Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou used a Hong Kong shell company to evade US trade curbs on Iran
China raised the pressure on the United States and Canada as a bail hearing for a top Chinese technology executive was set to resume Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia.
A headline in a Communist Party newspaper called Canada’s treatment of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, « inhumane. » The editorial published in Monday’s Global Times followed formal government protests to the ambassadors of both Canada and the United States over the weekend.
Meng was detained on December 1 while changing planes in Vancouver. The U. S. wants her extradited. It alleges Huawei used a Hong Kong shell company to evade U. S. trade curbs on Iran.
Her arrest could fuel U. S.-China trade tensions at a time when the two sides are seeking to resolve a dispute over Beijing’s technology and industrial strategy. Both sides have sought to keep the issues separate, at least so far.
« This is a criminal justice matter, » U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on CBS’ « Face the Nation » on Sunday. « It is totally separate from anything that I work on or anything that the trade policy people in the administration work on…. We have a lot of very big, very important issues. We’ve got serious people working on them, and I don’t think they’ll be affected by this. »
The hearing on whether to release on bail was due to resume later Monday. Canadian prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley asked the court Friday to reject Meng’s bail request. Justice William Ehrcke said he would think about proposed bail conditions over the weekend.
