Huawei exec remains behind bars in Canada

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada

A second day of court Monday brought no resolution to the question of whether a senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei would be granted bail, with the hearing resuming tomorrow.

The arrest of the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, on Dec. 1 at Vancouver International Airport was at the request of the American government. The U.S. wants Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei, extradited to the U.S. to face fraud charges.

A bail hearing Friday was extended to Monday and Meng spent the weekend in a Canadian jail.

Huawei is suspected of operating a subsidiary company that Meng maintained as a separate firm and then used that company to illegally do business with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Her lawyer, David Martin, argued Monday that although she had access to substantial sums of money, she is not a flight risk because his client “is a woman of character and dignity” and “deeply respectful of the rule of law”.

He also said she would not flee because it would embarrass the Chinese government.

Martin proposed that if Meng was granted bail, she would submit to electronic monitoring and that a private security team would follow her while she would pay the costs. He also said she would reside at her Vancouver home while her case proceeded.

Her arrest in Vancouver on Saturday brought a sharp rebuke from the Chinese government.

It also sent stock markets plunging over fears the incident would kill a temporary trade war ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Thursday that politics did not play a role in Meng’s arrest for possible extradition to the United States.

U.S. authorities asked for Canada to detain Meng and Thursday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said he also knew in advance of the arrest.

The tension with Beijing has prompted Canada to prepare for a possible cyber attack from China on its communication network.

Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment and second-biggest maker of smartphones behind Samsung.