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After prolonged litigation, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that the U.S. extradition request for Meng Wanzhou to the U.S. was valid with respect to Canadian law.
Meng Wanzhou is the daughter of Ren Chengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei. She was arrested in Canada in December 2018 on a warrant issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. At issue is an allegation of fraud relating to transfer of funds from Iran to Huawei through a series of banks in contravention of U.S. sanctions. In her judgment, Justice Holmes noted that U.S. allegations of bank fraud would be illegal in Canada and accordingly met the test of applicability.
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Ms. Meng |
The Embassy of China in Toronto expressed dissatisfaction and opposition to the court ruling and is continuing to apply diplomatic pressure to arrange for the release of Ms. Meng.
The situation is playing out against deteriorating relations between China and the U.S. and may evoke retaliatory action by China. Although action against China over Hong Kong announced by the President on May 29th was mild, there is no evident move to thawing relations. The Administration has threatened re-imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods that would effectively invalidate the January 15th Phase-One trade agreement. Despite some exports of pork and orders for consignments of corn and soybeans, the agreement may be in jeopardy based on rhetoric from Washington and Beijing. A collapse of the agreement would have profound effects on the U.S. agricultural sector.
Perhaps Ms. Meng has now become a “piece” in an international chess game