A Canadian prosecutor on Friday urged a Vancouver court to deny bail to a Chinese executive at the heart of a case that is shaking up US-China relations and worrying global financial markets.
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) was detained at the request of the US during a layover at Vancouver International Airport on Saturday last week — the same day US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) agreed over dinner to a 90-day ceasefire in a trade dispute that threatens to disrupt global commerce.
The US alleges that Huawei used a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment in Iran in violation of US sanctions.
Photo: Bloomberg
It also says that Meng and Huawei misled US banks about its business dealings in Iran.
The surprise arrest, already denounced by Beijing, raises doubts about whether the trade truce will hold and whether the world’s two biggest economies can resolve the complicated issues that divide them.
“I think it will have a distinctively negative effect on the US-China talks,” said Philip Levy, senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and an economic adviser in former US president George W. Bush’s administration. “There’s the humiliating way this happened right before the dinner, with Xi unaware. Very hard to save face on this one. And we may see [Chinese retaliation], which will embitter relations.”
Canadian prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley said in a court hearing that a warrant had been issued for Meng’s arrest in New York on Aug. 22.
Meng, arrested en route to Mexico from Hong Kong, was aware of the investigation and had been avoiding the US for months, even though her teenage son goes to school in Boston, he said.
Gibb-Carsley said that Huawei had done business in Iran through a Hong Kong company called Skycom Tech Co (星通技術公司).
Meng had misled US banks into thinking that Huawei and Skycom were separate when, in fact, “Skycom was Huawei,” he said.
Meng has contended that Huawei sold Skycom in 2009.
In urging the court to reject Meng’s bail request, Gibb-Carsley said the Huawei executive has vast resources and a strong incentive to bolt: She is facing fraud charges in the US that could put her in prison for 30 years.
Meng’s lawyer, David Martin, said that it would be unfair to deny her bail just because she “has worked hard and has extraordinary resources.”
He told the court that her personal integrity and respect for her father, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非), would prevent her violating a court order.
Meng, who owns two homes in Vancouver, was willing to wear an ankle bracelet and put the houses up as collateral, he said.
There was no bail decision by the judge on Friday, so Meng was to spend the weekend in jail and the hearing is to resume tomorrow.
Justice William Ehrcke said he would think about proposed bail conditions over the weekend.
Huawei, in a brief statement e-mailed to reporters, said that “we have every confidence that the Canadian and US legal systems will reach the right conclusion.”
The company is the world’s biggest supplier of network gear used by telephone and Internet companies and long has been seen as a front for spying by the Chinese military and security services.
“What’s getting lost in the initial frenzy here is that Huawei has been in the crosshairs of US regulators for some time,” said Gregory Jaeger, special counsel at the Stroock law firm and a former US Department of Justice trial attorney. “This is the culmination of what is likely to be a fairly lengthy investigation.”
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
RSS