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Arrest of Meng Wanzhou

Meng Wanzhou at Russia Calling! Investment Forum

On 1 December 2018, upon the request of the U.S. authorities, Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver for violating the sanctions against Iran. After nearly two months, on 28 January 2019, Meng was officially charged by the U.S. government on multiple charges including financial fraud and evading Iran sanctions. The detention complicates China-Canada and China-U.S. relationships at a time when the U.S. and China were attempted to resolved an ongoing trade dispute. In March 2019, Meng's case has expended to a conflict between Huawei and the U.S. government on 5G technology.

Background

Huawei & Meng Wanzhou

Huawei is a Chinese tech company founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei (Ren is his last name), a former military technologist in People's Liberation Army. As of 2019, Huawei is the second-largest smartphone producer behind Samsung. As a multinational networking and telephone communication equipment manufacturer, Huawei is in many markets outside of China.

Meng Wanzhou is the deputy chairwoman and the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, also the daughter of Ren Zhengfei (Meng Wanzhou takes her mother's last name). As the New York Times described, Ms. Meng had spoken at company events in New York, Cancun, and Mexico. She also cooperated with a Huawei partner company in Hong Kong called Skycom Tech, which Canadian authorities claimed it did business in Iran.

Iran sanctions

The Iran sanctions include multiple restrictions on the activities of Iran, imposed by the U.S. since 1979. The latest revision became effective in November 2018 after U.S. President Donal Trump abandoned the Iran Nuclear Deal in May 2018. Through the position Meng had at Huawei, Canadian authorities assisted the United States government in arresting Ms. Meng because she may had personally been involved in tricking financial institutions into making transactions which violated the U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Timeline

2018

• August
  • 22^th: The warrant for arresting Meng was issued by the Eastern District Court in New York.

• December
  • 1^st: After the request for extradition by the U.S. government, Meng was arrested in Vancouver Airport by Canadian authorities.
  • 6^th: China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged an explanation for the arrest and China's embassy in Canada released a statement saying that "the Chinese side firmly opposes and strongly protests over such kind of actions which seriously harmed the human rights of the victim", and requested the release of Meng immediately.
  • 8^th: John McCallum, the Canada's Ambassador of China, was convened to meet with China's Assistant Foreign Minister, Le Yucheng, who strongly stated that "China will respond further depending on US actions".
  • 9^th: U.S. Ambassador to China, Terry Bransted, was convened to lodge similar protest about Meng's arrest and requested to revoke the order of the arrest.
  • 10^th: Chinese authorities arrested Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat now work for the International Crisis Group (ICG). At the same time, China's Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had a conversation on the phone talked about the next stage of the U.S.-China trade.
  • 11^th: Meng was released on bail of about $7.5 million by Canadian Court and kept under close monitoring.
  • 12^th: Michael Spavor, a Canadian businessman work closely with North Korea, was arrested by Chinese authorities. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that ICG was not properly registered in China which makes Kovrig's activities in China illegal.
  • 13^th: China's Foreign Ministry stated that Kovrig and Spavor were arrested on an investigation relates to "activities that endanger China's national security".
  • 20^th: U.S. Justice Department charged two Chinese citizens, Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, in stealing information from U.S. companies and government.
  • 24^th: On the Foreign Ministry's Regular Press Conference, spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that the action of Canadian authorities was "at the behest of the US side" and "strongly urge the Canadian side to correct its mistakes".

2019

• January
  • 7^th: Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau agreed on pushing Chinese authorities to release two Canadian citizens arrested in China. Trump restated his position on respecting judicial independence and talked about the extradition between U.S. and Canada without mentioning Meng's case.
  • 18^th: Canada's Public Safety Minister Robert Goodale said that the government has not yet decided whether to block Huawei's 5G network while the examination of 5G network is still going on and the final decision will be affected by "Canada's national interest".
  • 28^th: U.S. Department of Justice officially filed 13 charges against Huawei and Meng, including bank fraud, obstruction of justice and theft of technology, etc. Huawei denied all the charges and stated that it "is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng".
  • 29^th: U.S. formally requested for extraditing Meng for violating numerous laws that the Department of Justice has announced earlier.

• March
  • 4^th: Huawei announced that it's ready to issue a lawsuit against the U.S. government in Texas where Huawei's U.S. headquarter is located.

Responses

Chinese officials

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has protested the arrest and extradition Meng and requested her release. In the case of arresting two Canadians, John McCallum (8 Dec, 2018) and Michael Spavor (12 Dec, 2018), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs insists that those two Canadians were under the investigation of violating China's national security and their rights are guaranteed.

Huawei

Huawei's official made a concise statement earlier in the case, denying that Meng had done anything illegal. The next big move of the company is to announce in its press conference that they will fight for its rights against the U.S. government. In fact, Huawei owns the many essential patents of 5G technology -- which been seen as the near future of telecommunity, hence, Huawei queries that U.S. government is trying to protect its own tele companies by putting Huawei's CFO at an illegal position and to ban Huawei.

Ren Zhengfei

Meng's father, Ren Zhengfei, is the founder and CEO of Huawei. Mr. Ren did not often speak with the media, but accepted interviews from Chinese and international publications to emphasize that Huawei, as a private company with no background, has been long prepared for such case and the company will be stronger than people think. Ren briefly thanked the Chinese government and the public for their support. He claims that Huawei has the confidence to let products speak for themselves. Also, Ren admitted that his unusual contact with the media was because of pressure from the company's PR department to communicate a sense of faith to Huawei's employees and customers.