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Such an expensive branding effort would be fine, except for this: the Chinese government, to which Huawei is intimately tied, has been virulently anti-Canadian as of late.

The Chinese government’s harsh and arbitrary actions on behalf of the company, exercised solely to put pressure on Canada to release Meng, is why Huawei should be banished from the visual real estate of the country’s most enduring hockey program. As well, Canadians should boycott Huawei products.

In the weeks following Meng’s arrest in Vancouver, the Chinese government has threatened the Canadian government, arbitrarily detained two Canadian citizens and changed the sentence of an Abbotsford, B.C.-born convicted drug smuggler from 15 years imprisonment to death.

The Chinese government, to which Huawei is intimately tied, has been virulently anti-Canadian as of late

This sort of retaliatory diplomacy is particularly transparent in the case of Meng, who serves as Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer. She is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, an ex-People’s Liberation Army engineer who parlayed his ingenuity and deep contacts with the country’s Communist party into what has become a leading global telecommunications concern. China is demonstrably not amused.

By contrast, Huawei’s Hockey Night in Canada gambit is part and parcel of an initiative to convince us that the company is but a producer of slick smartphones and advanced technology equipment. The company also sponsors the Ottawa Senators.

Though it still pales in comparison to the likes of Apple and Samsung, Huawei holds almost four per cent of Canada’s cellphone market share, and is growing. Meanwhile, the company’s technology and hardware have been key in the building of the country’s telecom infrastructure. It is one of the world’s biggest purveyors of 5G network hardware and know-how. Huawei, so the company spiel goes, is more advanced and less expensive than its rivals.