The Long Reach of Canada's Hard Place

"The appropriate authorities took the decisions in this case."
"We were advised by them with a few days' notice that this was in the works but of course there was no engagement or involvement in the political level in this decision because we respect the independence of our judicial processes."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"[Although  China is likely to] understand [that Canada is under pressure from the U.S., the Chinese will have] special concerns that the arrest took place on Canadian soil."
"I imagine that some Chinese are going to see this as the equivalent of a hostage-taking. I hope very much that this will not escalate into the equivalent of what happens sometimes when spies are arrested in one country and the other country retaliates." 
"I think there's a lot of things we don't know about this yet but this is not small potatoes. This is a significant symbolic and material action at a time of growing U.S.-China tension around geopolitics and techno-nationalism."
Paul Evans, University of British Columbia Institute of Asian Research

"I think because of the super-delicate phase that we're at in terms of U.S.-China trade relations that China is more likely to wait for this process to move a little bit further in the legal proceedings rather than retaliate immediately."
"It's like the dog that didn't bark, if a business person decides not to make an investment, or [an] existing company decides not to expand their investment [in Canada]."
"I don't see the basis on which this could be quashed by Canada."
Gordon Houlden, director, China Institute, University of Alberta

"The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng."
"The company believes the Canadian and U.S. legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion."
Huawei Technologies statement

The U.S. is seeking the extradition of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., after convincing Canada to arrest her on Dec. 1, likely in connection with violating sanctions against Iran. Huawei via AP

This is Canada being caught in the crosshairs of a shot across the bow by the United States at its economic and trade rival, China. On the one hand, Canada's closest neighbour and trading partner, which has of late been treated by the current administration of the U.S. with suspicion and paranoia and accompanying penalties, which Canada, perennially dependent on American goodwill and trade for its economic health, on the other hand, squeezed by interest in another trade giant as a potential alternate for investment and trade opportunities now finds itself deeply compromised.

Canada's proximity to, and dependence on successive U.S. administrations to keep its economy hale and hearty is the rock, and Canada's view to the future in establishing greater ties with a country whose 1.4-billion consumers representing a welcome market freeing it from its unstable, long dependence on the U.S. is the hard place. That Prime Minister Justin Trudeau actually hopes his explanation will have resonance with the Communist Party of China which has ultimate control over everything in China, including the judiciary is a fond, misplaced hope of desperation.

That the chief financial officer of Huawei Technology has suffered the gross indignity of being arrested on a stopover at Vancouver International airport on her way between Hong Kong and Mexico is a grave affront to China, no less than to Meng Wanzhou whose father is one of the wealthiest men in China, the founder of the company she now represents, with a long reach internationally. She has been arraigned and her bail hearing set, alleging she has committed multiple fraud acts in a scheme to trick financial institutions into transactions violating American sanctions against Iran.

Members of the media and public line up to enter a courtroom to attend a bail hearing for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, on Friday December 7, 2018. She was arrested Saturday after an extradition request from the United States while in transit at the city’s airport. Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS

"She has the means to flee and to remain outside Canada. Her ordinary home is in a country without an extradition treaty with ['the] U.S.", stated the federal prosecutor assigned to the case, the courtroom stuffed with international media, along with members of the Chinese-Canadian community many of whom, like her, own palatial mansions in Vancouver. At the heart of the allegations leading to Ms. Meng's arrest is the charge that the company used a subsidiary, Skycom, for business in Iran with an Iranian telecommunications company between 2009 and 2014, in violation of American sanctions.

In 2013, a Reuters wire agency story published a description of Huawei-controlled Skycom, detailing that Skycom had moved to provide U.S.-manufactured computer equipment to Iran, violating the sanctions, when several banks with involvement in the transactions enquired of Huawei whether the revelations were actual fact. The alleged "damage control" undertaken by Ms. Meng was described in the news agency's article, according to federal Crown prosecutor John Gibb-Carsley.

On this article and its contentions hangs the nub of the case against this powerful woman, representing a company that is among the most linked of Chinese technology giants to the Chinese government. "Skycom was Huawei. This is the alleged fraud. Skycom employees were Huawei employees", charged Gibb-Carsley. Those actions placed the financial institutions at serious risk as unknowing co-conspirators involved in defying U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran for its nuclear ambitions.

Ms. Meng's lawyer's appeal to Justice William Ehreke at B.C. Supreme Court to grant bail to his client failed. She is compelled to spend at least the week-end in incarceration. Earning a huge black mark for Canada in China's books where retaliation will eventuate at some time and place chosen for its most emphatic efficacy. "[The Chinese embassy in Canada] firmly opposes and strongly protests over such kind of actions which seriously harmed the human rights of the victim" was the first shot in what will become a barrage of blowbacks courtesy China to Canada.

In this courtroom sketch, Meng Wanzhou, right, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, sits beside a translator during a bail hearing at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Friday. Meng was arrested last Saturday while she was travelling through Vancouver airport, after an extradition request from the United States. (Jane Wolsak/Canadian Press)

Crown counsel informed the Friday bail hearing in B.C. Friday that Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is "charged with conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions", each of those charge brought against her by American authorities carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.