Last Saturday, September 25th (Beijing Time), Meng Wanzhou arrived in Shenzhen Baoshan International airport after more than 1000 days of house arrest with a heroic welcome by Chinese government and people.
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| Meng Wanzhou (At the gangway) |
The Meng Wanzhou incident began on December 1, 2018. The Canadian police arrested Meng Wanzhou, the vice chairman and chief financial officer of Huawei, who was transiting in Vancouver at the request of the U.S. government for mutual legal assistance. On December 1, 2018, Meng Wanzhou arrived at Vancouver International Airport, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Meng Wanzhou in accordance with the U.S. provisional extradition request on charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud to circumvent U.S. sanctions against Iran.
The Chinese government strongly opposed Canada's action. Chinese ambassador to Canada, the spokeperson of Foreign Office and the Government of Shenzhen both address their oppose and urge the Canadian government to release Meng Wanzhou. Amid the time of China-United States Trade War, the Chinese government see the arrestment as a kind of suppression to China high-tech company.
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| Kang Mingkai (Michael Kovrig) and Michael Spaffer |
On December 10, 2018, the Chinese government arrested two Canadians, Kang Mingkai (Michael Kovrig) and Michael Spaffer. The Canadian government accused the incident as a retaliation by the government of the People’s Republic of China on the Meng Wanzhou incident.
At 10:32 PDT on December 7, 2018, Meng Wanzhou's bail hearing was held in the British Columbia High Court in Vancouver. The prosecutors accused Meng Wanzhou of "fraud" and violation of US "sanctions." The Canadian Department of Justice prosecution lawyer John Gibb-Carsley stated during the hearing that “From 2009 to 2014, Huawei used the Hong Kong-registered SkyCom Tech Co. to sell high-tech products from the United States. Resale to Iranian companies, in violation of US sanctions against Iran. On May 27, 2020, the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver ruled that Meng Wanzhou’s case met the “dual criminality” standard for extradition, and that Meng Wanzhou’s actions involved in the lawsuit were both crimes in the United States and Canada. The extradition process will continue.
On September 24, 2021, Meng Wanzhou participated in a hearing in the Brooklyn Federal Court of the United States from Vancouver, via video call. Although Meng Wanzhou didn't dispute the charge towards herself, but admit Huawei's action that misleading the international finintial institution when deading with Iran. Then, Meng Wanzhou and the U.S Deparment of Justice reached an agreement to suspend the prosecution.
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| Meng Wanzhou (the middle figure) |
As soon as Meng Wanzhou received the suspend of prosecution and in her way return to China, Kang Mingkai and Michael Spaffer fly back to Canada with the acompany of Canda ambassador to China. The People's Daily said that these two people were expelled from China and released on bail.
For the whole trial process, the major medias' cover are different via China, US and Canada. For China, whether the Foreign Office, ambassedors in Canada or newspaper companies have same opinion that is strongly opposed and see it as the suppression of China high-tech company like Huawei. Even when Meng Wanzhou returns to China, the media see her as "National Hero" that compete with the "imperialism" of U.S. For Canada and Unites States, they see China's action as "hostage diplomacy" that use two Canadians to threat the Candian authority to release Meng.
Reference:
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meng_Wanzhou
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/25/world/asia/meng-wanzhou-china.html?searchResultPosition=7
BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58682998
People's Daily: http://en.people.cn/n3/2021/0926/c90000-9901205.html
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China: https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2535_665405/t1909814.shtml
Department of Justice (Deferred Prosecution Agreement): https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1436211/download
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