China increases the pressure on Canada to release to the chief financial officer of Huawei, Meng Wangzhou. The asian giant has threatened that country with “serious consequences” for his detention, converting the case into one of the worst conflicts diplomats between Beijing and Ottawa. The deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Le Yucheng, was convened Saturday night at the canadian ambassador John McCallum to present a “strong protest” by the arrest of Meng in Vancouver, and urged Ottawa to release them immediately, according to a terse statement from the chinese foreign ministry.
“China urges strongly to the part of canada to release immediately the detained person and protect seriously its legitimate rights; otherwise, Canada should accept its responsibility for the serious consequences caused,” says the press release. The chinese foreign ministry described the arrest as “extremely unpleasant”, adding that “ignores the law” and that it has all the likely to “cause damage” to relations chinocanadienses. Meanwhile, an editorial in the official People’s Daily pointed out today that part of canada must realize “clearly” that there are “no vagueness” between the justice and arbitrariness. “The canada side should correct their mistakes and immediately stop this infringement on the legitimate rights and interests of a chinese citizen. You must give the chinese people a correct answer and that you can avoid paying a high price”, pointing to the newspaper.
Meng was arrested by the canadian authorities in Vancouver on the 1st of December at the request of the united States, which has requested his extradition to face fraud charges for violating the sanctions imposed by Washington on Iran. The us authorities alleged that Huawei had used the company SkyCom to violate the sanctions, and requested to Canada, the arrest and extradition of the chief financial officer, who had come to Vancouver from Hong Kong and was about to fly to Mexico when she was arrested.
see Also the official news agency Xinhua today joined the offensive china to release Meng with an editorial condemning the arrest and criticize the canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau. “According to the words of the canadian leader, knew about the arrest beforehand,” said Xinhua, referring to the fact that Trudeau, who is not mentioned directly, had prior knowledge of the intention of arresting Meng. Trudeau knew that, “but did not notify the chinese side”, “left to happen something so nasty”, helping the “behavior” hegemonic unilateral” of the u.s., which “has hurt the feelings of the chinese”, says the agency.
The conviction joint of the foreign ministry and the official media chinese is “unusual”, according to an article in today’s newspaper South China Morning Post that stresses “the seriousness” with Marsbahis which Beijing is taking the case and their determination to liberate Meng. Although China has not specified what actions it would take against Canada, the rotary hongkonés points to some possible retaliation measures, ranging from the freezing of the diplomatic exchanges until the suspension of trade, which would be launched if finally Meng is extradited to the united States.
“China has the concern that in the future its most important personalities are seen as a threat and wants to show that it can protect them”, said in declarations to the newspaper, Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at the People’s University and advisor to the Council of State. However, the analyst points out that China doesn’t want to scare the more advanced countries in a time in which seeks to improve its relations with the outside world following the outbreak this year of tensions over trade and policies between Washington and Beijing.
The us president, Donald Trump, and his main economic advisers recently declared that the case will not affect the restart of commercial negotiation, agreed to by the first and his chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at the last G20 summit (developed countries and emerging economies). Meanwhile, Huawei said Friday that the company has “all the confidence” that the legal systems of Canada and the united states “will come to the correct conclusion”, noting that the technology “is in compliance with all applicable laws”.
Meng appeared the Friday before a canadian court to request bail, while Justice of the north american country decides whether to approve his extradition to the USA, where he is accused of fraud for evading sanctions against Iran. During a hearing held in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, the office of the prosecutor of canadian are opposed to the granting of bail to consider that Meng, 46 years of age and daughter of the founder of the chinese manufacturer of telecommunications equipment Huawei, you can flee the country. The office of the prosecutor canadian defended to keep it under arrest until you decide if he is extradited to the united States, since the citizens of china no longer resides in Canada, although it has properties in Vancouver and spends several weeks a year in the country.
