Huawei executive gets first chance at release in extradition fight
The chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, fighting
extradition to the US, will get her first shot at release this week in a case
that's triggered an unprecedented diplomatic tussle between the US, China and
Canada.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia is set
to release a decision on whether Meng Wanzhou's case meets a key threshold of
Canada's extradition law. If Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes rules that
it fails to meet that test, Meng could be released from house arrest in
Vancouver. If not, extradition proceedings will continue.
The case was triggered when Meng was arrested on a US
handover request in December 2018 during a routine stopover at Vancouver
airport, a city where she owns two homes and often spent summer holidays. The
fallout has since spanned three countries.
Meng, the eldest daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder,
Ren Zhengfei, has become the highest profile target of a broader US effort to
contain China and its largest technology company, which Washington sees as a
national security threat.
China has accused Canada of abetting "a political persecution"
against a national champion. In the weeks after her arrest, China put two
Canadians – Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig – in jail, halted billions of
dollars in Canadian imports and put two other Canadians on death row, plunging
China-Canada relations into their darkest period in decades. US President
Donald Trump muddied the legal waters further when he indicated early on that
he might try to intervene in her case to boost a China trade deal.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – caught between his
country's two biggest trading partners – has resisted any such attempt to
interfere in the high-stakes proceedings, saying the rule of law will govern
Meng's case.
"Canada has an independent judicial system that
functions without interference or override by politicians," Trudeau said
last week in response to comments by the Chinese ambassador that Meng's case
was the biggest thorn in Canada-China relations. "China doesn't work quite
the same way and doesn't seem to understand that we do have an independent
judiciary."
China's foreign ministry didn't respond to a request for
comment.
Meng, 48, faces tough odds: of the 798 US extradition
requests received since 2008, Canada has refused or discharged only eight
cases, or 1 per cent, according to Canada's Department of Justice.
Whether she goes free or continues her battle against US
extradition, the ruling is likely to further escalate the fight between
Washington and Beijing, increasingly at loggerheads over everything from the
coronavirus pandemic to the status of Taiwan and Hong Kong to trade and
investment.
Huawei continues to play a central role in those tensions.
Earlier this month, the US Commerce Department barred chipmakers using American
equipment from supplying Huawei without US government approval, closing a
loophole in an effort to cut the Chinese company off from essential supplies
used in its phones and networking gear. The move drew condemnation from Beijing
and warnings from Huawei's rotating chairman, Guo Ping, that the latest US
curbs on its business would cause the whole industry to "pay a terrible
price."
The US government has lobbied its allies, including Canada,
to ban Huawei from next-generation 5G networks, saying its equipment would make
such infrastructure vulnerable to spying by the Chinese government. Despite
that, the UK said in January it would allow Huawei a limited role. But in
recent days, British media have reported the government is backtracking and
preparing to end Huawei's presence by 2023.
Trudeau has been stalling on Canada's decision with the
fates of Spavor and Kovrig hanging in the balance. The two detainees have been
confined for more than 500 days without access to lawyers. In contrast, Meng
was photographed by CBC News on Saturday as she posed with nearly a dozen
colleagues and friends – social distancing rules to fight the virus
notwithstanding –displaying victory signs in front of the courthouse.
The pursuit of Meng by US authorities predates the Trump
administration: officials were building a case against her since at least 2013,
according to court documents in her case. Central to the case are allegations
that Meng committed fraud by lying to HSBC Holdings Plc and tricking the bank
into conducting Iran-related transactions in breach of US sanctions.
Wednesday's ruling will focus on whether the case meets the
so-called double criminality test: would Meng's alleged crime have also been a
crime in Canada?
Her defence has argued that the US case is, in reality, a
sanctions-violations complaint framed as fraud in order to make it easier to
extradite her. Had Meng's alleged conduct taken place in Canada, the
transactions by HSBC wouldn't violate any Canadian sanctions, they say. The US
bank and wire fraud charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison on
conviction.
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