China’s ire as Huawei CFO case opens

Chinese minister summons Canadian ambassador to urge immediate release of Meng Wangzhou

China has threatened Canada with grave consequences if a top executive at Huawei Technologies Co. is not immediately released, calling her arrest as she changed flights in Canada “unreasonable, unconscionable and vile in nature.”

In its first move since Meng Wangzhou was arrested December 1, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng summoned the Canadian Ambassador to China, John McCallum, to urge the immediate release of Huawei’s chief financial officer, the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Le told McCallum that the arrest was a severe violation of a Chinese citizens’ legitimate rights and interests. The move ignored the law, and Canada should be held accountable if Meng was not immediately released, Le said in the statement.

Meng’s arrest — on allegations that she committed fraud to sidestep sanctions against Iran — has become a flashpoint in trade tensions between the United States and China, roiling markets.

On Friday, the US began a market-shaking case against the Chinese telecoms giant in a Vancouver courtroom, alleging that Meng had hidden ties between Huawei and a company called Skycom that did business in Iran, said a lawyer representing Canada during the court hearing. Canada is presenting the case on behalf of the US, which wants to extradite Meng.

Fraud conspiracy charge

Meng, 46, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, is spending the weekend in jail after a decision on whether to grant bail was not reached. The case will continue today.

Meng was charged with conspiracy to defraud banks. Banks in the US cleared money for Huawei, but unknown to these financial firms, they were conducting business with Skycom in contravention of the sanctions, a lawyer said. The alleged transactions involved more than $100 million (Dh367 million) between 2010 and 2014, according to US evidence filed with the Vancouver court.