Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou expected to resolve U.S. charges

Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is expected to make two court appearances today, Global News has learned: one in the U.S., and one in Canada.

Both are expected to be significant and relate to reports of a possible deal between the U.S. and Meng, according to Reuters.

In Meng’s initial arrest, Canadian officials were acting on a U.S. warrant that had charged her with fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.

Meng says she is innocent and has been fighting extradition to the United States from Canada. Meng is confined to Vancouver and monitored 24/7 by private security that she pays for as part of her bail agreement.

Judicial hearings in her extradition case wrapped up in August, with the date for a ruling to be set on Oct. 21.

Resolving the case could have implications for two Canadians who are detained in China, as Chinese officials often moved Meng’s case in lockstep with the cases of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. However, China has rejected the suggestion that the cases of the Canadians in China are linked to Meng’s case.

The timeline of the cases makes it “difficult to believe” that China wasn’t moving the Canadians’ cases in tandem with the developments in Meng’s extradition trial, former foreign affairs minister John Manley told Global News in a previous interview.

Spavor and Kovrig, often referred to as the Two Michaels, have been detained in China since December 2018. They were thrown in Chinese jail just 10 days after Canada arrested Meng in Vancouver.

On March 1, 2019, Canada approved the extradition order of Meng to the United States. Just two days afterward, China claimed Kovrig had stolen state secrets.

In mid-May of 2019, China arrested the two men over allegations of espionage — a charge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly called “trumped-up” and “arbitrary.” China can only hold detainees up to six months before they must be arrested — and that deadline was almost up.

Then, in late May 2020, a Canadian court ruling dealt a major blow to Meng’s legal team and allowed her case to continue moving forward. Less than a month afterward, China formally indicted Spavor and Kovrig.

“It would be quite a remarkable coincidence…were they were not related,” Manley said.

— With files from Reuters

by Global News