Canadian media heat on Meng’s eighth passport ‘meaningless’

Reports from Canadian media the Star Vancouver saying Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou’s eighth passport – a public affairs one which fueled speculation that Huawei is in connection with Chinese government and is not listed in court records – is “only available to Chinese elites” are meaningless, the Global Times has learned.

The “newly unveiled” public affairs passport by the Canadian media was previously mentioned in a report from Hong Kong media HK01 in December, though it was not among the seven passports listed before British Columbia Supreme Court records as part of Meng’s December bail hearing.

The Hong Kong media report said Meng used the passport, of which the serial number starts with the letter P, when she registered as a board member of a Hong Kong branch of Huawei in 2004.

Before China’s law on passport controls took effect in 2007, many public affairs passports were being issued, a person familiar with China’s passport history told the Global Times on Friday.

There were thousands of public affairs passports being issued in a month in 1994, even to middle-aged female vendors in markets, a China Youth Daily report in 2002 cited Zhong Jianhua, then chief of the consular department of China’s foreign ministry, as saying.

Such facts could rebuff the Canadian media claim that the public affairs passport is only available to Chinese elites.

Since 2007, a public affairs passport has been issued to government officials below the deputy division director level and officials with Stateowned enterprises traveling on business, the person familiar with China’s passport history said, with journalists and foreign aid personnel being the exceptions.

A Chinese public affairs passport grants visa-free visits to more countries and regions than a general passport, but one needs to get a verification document from the authority before traveling abroad.

A public affairs passport issued before 2007 was only valid for five years, the source said.

That means Meng’s 2004 public affairs passport expired in 2009.

In an email statement to news website Quartz on Wednesday, Huawei said that Meng’s public affairs passport is no longer valid.

“We reject any suggestion that granting access to such passports means these executives were on Chinese government business. They were for commercial use and only when the applicant met the criteria,” the company said.