Lawyer seeks bail for Huawei executive

The United States is showing its hostility toward Chinese tech giant Huawei by speculating one of its senior executives has avoided travelling there to dodge charges, a lawyer arguing for her release on bail said Monday.

B.C. Supreme Court has heard Meng Wanzhou, 46, has not visited the U.S. since March 2017, but David Martin dismissed the relevance of that evidence at a bail hearing.

“It would take somebody who’s utterly tone deaf to not understand that the United States has a political, legal posture of adversity against both China and its leading company,” Martin told a packed courtroom where Meng, dressed in a green track suit, sat in the prisoner’s box beside an interpreter.

The hearing was scheduled to resume today.

The United States wants Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer, to face allegations of fraud related to the use of its subsidiary Skycom to do business with Iranian telecommunications companies between 2009 and 2014. Justice William Ehrcke said Meng is being held on a provisional warrant and the United States has 60 days to make an extradition request.

Martin told Ehrcke that Meng’s husband, Xiaozong Liu, would pledge a total of $15 million — the value of two houses in Vancouver, plus $1 million cash — and live with her to ensure she complies with conditions imposed by the court if she is released on bail.

However, Ehrcke questioned whether Meng’s husband can provide a surety because he is visiting Canada on a six-month visa and the form to provide the financial guarantee says it must be provided by a resident of B.C. The judge invited Martin to do more research and give him a “legal foundation” on which to go on.

Martin also proposed surveillance of Meng by former police officers who work for a security company or through an ankle bracelet.