Extradition case in Canada drags on as Donald Trump prepares to meet Beijing’s top trade envoy in Washington

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The chief financial officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, has made her first appearance in a Canadian court in more than a month, part of a high-stakes dispute that threatens to cast a pall over this week’s US-China trade talks.

Meng, the daughter of the Chinese telecoms company’s founder, attended the hearing in British Columbia supreme court on Tuesday, just two days before Donald Trump and Chinese vice premier Liu He are scheduled to meet in Washington.

The case will continue to linger throughout negotiations. Canada now has a month to decide whether the US’s formal extradition request is strong enough, and during Tuesday’s hearing, Justice William Ehrcke delayed the next hearing by a month, to 6 March.

Canada arrested Meng on 1 December at the request of the US, which on Monday brought sweeping charges against Huawei and Meng that paint the company as a threat to US national security. Meng was charged with bank and wire fraud to violate American sanctions against Iran. China’s foreign ministry urged the US to drop the arrest warrant and end “unreasonable suppression” of Chinese companies.

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US Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Tuesday he expected significant progress in the Washington trade talks, set for Wednesday and Thursday, and insisted the US security concerns raised by the Huawei case were a separate issue.

US intelligence officials expressed fresh national security concerns about Huawei during a US Senate committee hearing in Washington on Tuesday.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers the lines between “the Chinese government and ostensibly private companies” are blurred if not totally erased and “especially the lines between lawful behaviour and fair competition and lying and hacking and cheating and stealing”.

In Ottowa on Tuesday, justice minister David Lametti confirmed the US had filed a formal extradition request with his department.

Lametti, asked whether a decision could come sooner than the 30-day limit, said officials “will take the time that they need to make an enlightened decision based on the evidence in front of them”.

Neither Lametti nor foreign minister Chrystia Freeland gave any hints on whether Canada would back the extradition request. Freeland told reporters Meng “has been afforded access to Canada’s impartial and objective judicial system”.

Meng has been staying at a family residence in Vancouver ever since Ehrcke approved her release on C$10m ($7.5m) bail.

Her arrest further aggravated US-Chinese tensions at a time when the two economic powerhouses are locked in a trade war. Trump said in December he could intervene in Meng’s case if it would serve US national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.

Following Meng’s arrest, China arrested two Canadians on national security grounds. A Chinese court later retried a Canadian man who had been jailed for drug smuggling and sentenced him to death.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday fired his ambassador to China, who had said Meng could make a strong argument against being sent to the US.

In a previous sworn affidavit, Meng said she was innocent and would contest the allegations at trial in the United States if extradited. Her lawyer Reid Weingarten said Meng “should not be a pawn or a hostage” in “complex” Sino-US relations.

Huawei is the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment and second-biggest maker of smartphones. It derives nearly half of its total revenue outside China.

Reuters contributed to this report