CHINA-US: CRITICISM OF CANADA'S DETENTION OF HUAWEI'S CHEIF FINANCIAL OFFICER MENG WANZHOU
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China's state-owned Global Times on December 9, observed that the bail hearing of 46-year old Ms Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Huawei Technologies and daughter and possible successor of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, had been deferred, but cited a source as saying "she has been subjected to rude and degrading treatment", was handcuffed and that the Canadian detention facility is not offering her the necessary health care. Stating that "Canada is a country well-known for emphasizing human rights and the rule of law" it asked "How can they do such things that are only done in an uncivilized and barbaric country?" It added "It is time for Canadian authorities to figure out the reasons why Ms Meng is the only wanted member of the board of Skycom, a company based in Hong Kong, accused by the US of violating sanctions." Saying that "Canada is an independent sovereign nation. Although its relationship with the US is quite special, it should remain neutral in dealing with Meng's case, and not simply do whatever the US has told it to do." It cautioned "if Meng is refused bail and extradited to the US, Canada will get minimal gratitude from the US, but maximum opposition from China. Chinese people will take the issue seriously, and will ask the Chinese government to impose severe sanctions on Canada. Canadian public interest will definitely be impaired if Sino-Canadian relations are put at a risk of major retrogression".
Separately,Gibb-Carsley who is representing the U.S. Department of Justice said Huawei found out about the United States investigation into the company when its subsidiaries were served with a grand jury subpoena in April 2017, and that since then Ms Meng had stopped visiting the US. He said she earlier used to visit the US regularly since 2014 at least 2 or 3 times a year as her 16-year-old son — one of three sons from a previous marriage — is at a school in Boston. Ms. Meng, who remarried, also has a daughter. Interesting too is that US National Security Adviser John Bolton said in an interview with NPR on December 6,: “You know, I don’t know the answer to that. I knew in advance, but this is something that’s, that we get from the Justice Department and these kinds of things happen with some frequency. We certainly don’t inform the president on every one of them.”
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