Collegial Business Ties: Canada/China

"One of the punishments that is applied for such charges [drug-smuggling] is the death penalty, and China executes more people than any other country in the world."
"My worry is that he [Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg] may be more likely to be sentenced to death than would have been the case before the current breakdown in relations between Canada and China."
Michael Byers, professor of global politics, University of British Columbia

"Is it going to be affected by the current situation [Huawei dispute]? That would not be surprising."
"It would not be surprising if he gets a harsh sentence, but it may be the amount in question already justifies a death sentence [under Chinese law]."
Donald Clarke, Chinese law specialist, George Washington University Law School

"Another Canadian accused [charged with smuggling a] huge [quantity of drugs]."
"[One must] really admire the courage of this Canadian man to actually dare to smuggle drugs in China. We must know that Chinese criminal law has no sympathy for drug crimes."
runsby.com website, Lianing province, northeastern China

"China has not abolished the death penalty based on its own history and current conditions."
"Chinese courts ... won't give the wrongdoer a way out simply because the criminal is a foreigner."
Global Times, branch, Communist Party's People's Daily

A police officer stands outside a prison in Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning Province. China still has the death penalty for drug trafficking. (Masao Mizuno/Kyodo News via AP)

Obviously it doesn't take courage but stupidity and a measure of careless audacity for a Canadian to smuggle drugs into China, and get caught doing it. Particularly as even the most dim-minded moving drugs must be aware of the penalties imposed particularly on foreigners, in south-east Asian countries which struggle with their own epidemics of drug abuse. That anyone is senseless enough to smuggle drugs into China, a country infamous for its production of chemical-laboratory-produced drugs of lethal power probably deserves to face some level of punishment.

The death penalty?

This fellow, Schellenberg, has been in a Chinese prison for "several years". He has suddenly come to the attention of Chinese authorities: a Canadian in a Chinese prison for the criminal act of drug-smuggling, what an opportunity for the Chinese government to demonstrate its full-bore displeasure with Canada, an upstart nation that has roiled ill feelings from the powerful trading giant the government of Canada is so eager to do business with in a free trade deal.

Of course, care might have been exercised through official channels to advise Meng Wanzhou that she faces arrest should she venture into Canada, even to visit her two splendid 'summer homes' in Vancouver, now that a U.S. court has issued an alert for her arrest and extradition to the U.S. Canada in honouring its treaty with the U.S. speaks earnestly of its obligation under the law to proceed as it did, naively taken by surprise at the strength of the ensuing Chinese outrage.

Surprise? That a technological communications giant linked to the Communist Government of China has suffered the humiliation of one of its chief executives and daughter of the CEO has been arrested? After all, there's a trade war ongoing between the two trade colossi, China and the U.S. With Canada whom the U.S. has done no favours to in its revision of NAFTA into the USMC trade pact and China playing it cool with a potential free trade agreement with Canada as background.

Chinese punishment under its law for the smuggling of a kilogram or more of heroin or methamphetamine ranges from 15 years to the finality of execution. The two other Canadians arrested, a businessman and a former diplomat are still in play; the third, an English teacher with an expired work permit has been released and returned to Canada. What manner of punishment that can be meted out to the other two is questionable; they can be accused of 'endangering Chinese security', but it is likely only Chinese who face such accusations will also face the death penalty.

The country that executes more prisoners than any other nation on Earth would without doubt balk at extending the final solution to a diplomat and a businessman, not one of their own, but not a drug smuggler. This, from a country that produces immense amounts of deadly fentanyl and even deadlier carfentanil, both drugs increasingly responsible for overdose deaths throughout Canada and the United States, and whose disinterest in cooperating to keep Chinese Internet operators from selling them so freely at bargain rates is partially responsible for the death toll.


On Saturday, Robert Schellenberg who was given a 15-year prison sentence for drug smuggling last month, appealed to the Higher People's Court of Liaoning Province. At the hearing, Chinese prosecutors argued that Schellenberg was, in their opinion, part of an international drug smuggling operation. The appeals court ruled that the "light punishment" of 15-years was "obviously inappropriate", sending the case back to the Dalian Intermediate People's Court for retrial.

"I can't see inside the judge's head or what his instructions from the party might be, but this is just not a good time. We're not going to get the benefit of doubt and the penalties may be more severe."
"Their system works very much more differently than ours. There is potential for party intervention in sensitive cases, in a way that's simply not possible in Canada."
Gordon Houlden, director of the the University of Alberta's China Institute

What a Complex Dilemma Within a Wicked Web of Deceit

"Perhaps because the Chinese state controls its judicial system, Beijing sometimes has difficulty understanding or believing that courts can be independent in a rule-of-law country."
"There's no point in pressuring the Canadian government. Judges will decide."
Roland Paris, former foreign policy adviser to Canadian federal government

"[The United States must] immediately correct its wrong actions."
"[Meng Wanzhou's detention at the request of the United States while transferring flights in Vancouver was a] severe violation [of her] legitimate rights and interests."
"Such a move ignores the law and is unreasonable, unconscionable, and vile in nature."
"China strongly urges the Canadian side to immediately release the detained Huawei executive -- or face grave consequences that the Canadian side should be held accountable for."
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng

"There is ample evidence to suggest that no major Chinese company is independent of the Chinese government and Communist Party -- and Huawei, which China's government and military tout as a 'national champion' is no exception."
U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio: letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"My take is, both Ottawa and London are in a position to say ... we do lots with you in the intelligence sharing and we're not going to jeopardize our networks. We know what to do."
"The magnitude of the contracts that Huawei has here [in Canada] would be a factor, with the Canadian carriers saying to Ottawa that it's kind of too late now."
Lawrence Surtees, vice-president for communications research, IDC Canada 

Huawei will play a major part in the global rollout of 5G mobile internet [Reuters]

Huawei Technologies ... who are they? A global technological giant, that's who. And though Huawei's integration into the Canadian telecommunications and smartphone market in Canada has been gradual and isn't considered to be very large accounting for only about 3.8 percent of the market, outside Canada it is an impressive juggernaut. This year smartphone sales of Huawei devices outsold Apple. The Chinese giant employs over 170,000 people across the world's geography.

It was founded by a former officer in intelligence of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and since its founding in 1987 has grown explosively in the last decade. In 2018 alone it racked up sales of over $102-billion. Huawei, to the telecom industry in Canada as well as the federal government, is known as an important equipment supplier, albeit one identified as a security threat by American authorities.

A U.S. warrant for the arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wangzhou, actioned by Canadian authorities for extradition to the U.S. has infuriated China. She is accused of having manipulated U.S. banks into unknowing compliance in funding actions defying U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea. She has been imprisoned in Vancouver and bail conditions have not yet been resolved. Her arrest has unnerved the Chinese community from Hong Kong with their dual citizenship, in Vancouver living in palatial homes.

Huawei’s P10 smartphone. 

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

As a major supplier of equipment required for wireless networks (that potentially could be used to gather sensitive information for the Chinese government), Huawei and its integrated equipment have been indispensable to those using its technology. Canada's response to U.S. concerns has been to state with assurance that both the Canadian government and representatives of major telecom companies in Canada insist precautions are in effect to ensure that  Huawei cannot pose security or privacy threats.

Although the United States, Australia and New Zealand have put the brakes on Huawei in their countries for security purposes, neither Canada nor the United Kingdom have seen fit to do the same. This is a sensitive issue since Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States are allied in the "Five Eyes" intelligence and security network agreement, and two of the five are now viewed as possibly being compromised.

According to Lawrence Surtees, Huawei equipment has been installed in five Canadian wireless networks using fourth-generation LTE technology; replacement would be an extremely expensive undertaking at this point. Bell and Telus have included Huawei working to develop equipment for 5G wireless networks, expected to be increasingly important to carriers and their clients over the next decade. Few alternative suppliers exist of 5G network equipment.



Huawei employs about 960 people in Canada, some 600 of whom are in research and development. Its Canadian head office is located in Markham-Toronto and its Canada Research Centre is based in Ottawa, the nation's capital, with research facilities located in Markham and Waterloo in Ontario and Montreal in Quebec, Vancouver, B.C., and Edmonton, Alberta; well spread out throughout the country, represented in all major cities in various provinces.

Huawei-made smart-phones for current wireless networks are sold in Canada by Bell, Rogers, Telus and Videotron under their major brands, along with some secondary brands like Virgin Mobile, Fido and Koodo. Extrication from this well-established network would be very difficult. And disruption to Canadian industry, should Huawei decide to withdraw some of its investment would result in notable readjustments, along with injurious unemployment of personnel.

An employee monitors machinery used to adhere components to smartphone circuit boards in a manufacturing facility at ZTE Corp.'s headquarters.

Brent Lewin/Bloomberg/Getty Images