The Chinese Embassy in Canada condemned the case against and continued detention of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou as a "grave political incident
TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2020) The Chinese Embassy in Canada condemned the case against and continued detention of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou as a "grave political incident."
The Embassy's condemnation follows Wednesday's ruling, in which the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed Meng's application to end extradition proceedings to the United States.
"The whole case is entirely a grave political incident," the diplomatic mission's spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Embassy also accused the United States of trying to bring down Chinese high-tech companies and said that Canada is acting as an accomplice to the injustice.
The Embassy added that China strongly opposes the decision and urged Canadian authorities to immediately release the executive.
Throughout the day, Canadian officials including Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and Minister of National Defense Harjit Sajjan went on record to say that the Canadian court's ruling was an "independent decision."
Meng's application for dismissal rested on the issue of double criminality. Her lawyers argued in court that her alleged wrongdoings are not crimes in Canada and thus detaining Meng contradicts Canadian law.
The Canadian Justice Minister can still refuse to extradite Meng if the order to extradite is deemed to be in violation of Canadian values, according to the ruling rendered by Justice Heather Holmes.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on December 1, 2018 at Vancouver International Airport during a layover stop en route to Mexico from Hong Kong at the request of the US government.
Meng is wanted by US authorities for her alleged role in violating sanctions against Iran. The US Justice Department alleges that Meng committed financial transgressions by misleading multinational financial conglomerate, HSBC, into approving more than $100 million in transactions that contravened US sanctions on Iran from 2010 to 2014.
