There’s nothing improper about Charest, a former Quebec Liberal premier and a former federal Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, working for Huawei as part of a legal team at McCarthy Tetrault.

How many friends in high places do Huawei and the Chinese government have while pressuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for favourable treatment?

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But it’s a big political problem if Charest hopes to become the next Conservative leader, given that the Conservatives oppose allowing Huawei to bid on developing 5G wireless technology, over cyber security concerns.

Huawei says those are groundless, but they were serious enough to cause the U.S. and Australia to bar the company from developing 5G in their countries.

Trudeau hasn’t made a decision on the issue.

Charest joins a growing list of politicians and former politicians sympathetic to Huawei and China, or oblivious to the tense state of Canada-China relations.

Trudeau had to fire former Liberal cabinet minister John McCallum as ambassador to China after he backed the arguments of Meng’s legal team in her extradition case.

The US wants the Huawei CFO on charges — which she denies — of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud to violate American sanctions against Iran.

Following his firing, McCallum, who has business interests in China, told the South China Morning Post he urged the Chinese government through former contacts in its foreign affairs ministry to play nice with Canada, leading up to last year’s federal election.