Canadians released after Huawei CFO resolves US charges
Two Canadians detained in China on spying charges were released from prison and flown out of the country on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, just after a top executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies reached a deal with the US Justice Department over fraud charges and flew to China.
The frenetic chain of events involving the global powers brought an abrupt end to legal and geopolitical wrangling that for the past three years has roiled relations between Washington, Beijing and Ottawa.
The three-way deal enabled China and Canada to each bring home their own detained citizens while the US wrapped up a criminal case against a prominent tech executive that for months had been mired in an extradition fight.
The first activity came Friday afternoon when Meng Wanzhou, 49, Huawei's chief finance officer and the daughter of the company's founder, reached an agreement with federal prosecutors that called for fraud charges against her to be dismissed next year and allowed for her to return to China immediately.
As part of the deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, she accepted responsibility for misrepresenting the company's business dealings in Iran.
About an hour after Meng's plane left Canada for China, Trudeau revealed that Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were also on their way home.
The men were arrested in China in December 2018, shortly after Canada arrested Meng on a US extradition request. Many countries labelled China's action "hostage politics."