Huawei's CFO Arrested in Canada for Extradition to US

[Chance]

From BBC News (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46462858):


Canadian authorities have arrested Huawei's chief financial officer at the request of US law enforcement.

Meng Wanzhou, who is also deputy chair of the Chinese telecoms giant, was arrested in Vancouver on 1 December, Canada's Department of Justice said.

Ms Meng, daughter of Huawei's founder, was being sought for extradition by the US, the department added.

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US media have reported that Huawei is under investigation for potential violations of US sanctions against Iran.

US lawmakers have also repeatedly accused the company of being a threat to US national security, arguing that its technology could be used for spying by the Chinese government.

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The arrest comes as the US has brought a number of legal cases against Chinese technology firms, with accusations such as cyber-security theft and violations of US sanctions against Iran.

Earlier this year, it barred US companies from exporting to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE over violations of the Iranian sanctions, effectively shutting down the firm.

This should get interesting....

[Chance]

Things are escalating. From BBC News (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47038322):


Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has denied any wrongdoing after US prosecutors filed a host of criminal charges against the firm.

Huawei has also rejected criminal claims against its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada last month.

The charges filed against Huawei in the US include bank fraud, obstruction of justice and theft of technology.

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The indictment, announced on Monday, alleges Huawei misled the US and a global bank about its relationship with two subsidiaries, Huawei Device USA and Skycom Tech, to conduct business with Iran.

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A second indictment alleges Huawei stole technology from phone company T-Mobile used to test smartphone durability, as well as obstructing justice and committing wire fraud.

Huawei said it settled the dispute with T-Mobile in a civil case filed in 2014.

The firm's technology, known as Tappy, mimicked human fingers to test phones.

In all, the US has laid 23 charges against the company.

"These charges lay bare Huawei's alleged blatant disregard for the laws of our country and standard global business practices," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Mr Wray said companies like Huawei "pose a dual threat to both our economic and national security".

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Huawei is one of the largest telecommunications equipment and services providers in the world, recently passing Apple to become the second biggest smartphone maker by volume after Samsung.

But the US and other Western nations have been concerned that the Chinese government could use Huawei's technology to expand its spying ability, although the firm insists there is no government control.

The arrest of Ms Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, infuriated China.

[Chance]

Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-china-meng-kovrig-spavor-prisoner-swap-11666877779) has a *long* article on how all of this was resolved, if "resolved" is the right word. Good reading for anyone interested in the evolution of the tech war. Part of the opening section is below.


A pair of prison vans approached the terminal at Tianjin Binhai International Airport carrying two Canadians, blindfolded and disoriented from 1,019 days in captivity.

On the moonlit tarmac, an unmarked U.S. Gulfstream jet waited to take them home. Nearby, the Canadian ambassador paced the carpeted lounge.

Fifteen time zones away, an Air China Boeing 777 stood ready at Vancouver International Airport. Armed officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police kept watch in the terminal. A Chinese executive in Manolo Blahnik heels strode past them, carrying a bag with a Carolina Herrera dress shaded the same vibrant red as China’s flag and trailed by an entourage of lawyers, aides and diplomats who called her Madam Meng. She, too, was headed home.

One of the most significant prisoner swaps in recent diplomatic history was under way, after a top-secret negotiation that was three years in the making.

At the Tianjin airport, a Chinese official was on the phone to confirm the woman’s passage through the Vancouver terminal. He then cleared the Canadian prisoners. The Canadian ambassador fumbled for their passports in a yellow envelope and ushered the men to an immigration checkpoint.

A Chinese guard stamped the passports and directed them to the runway.

When Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in 2018, she was chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co., a telecommunications giant founded by her father that was poised to win the race to build 5G networks in most of the world’s largest economies. Canadian authorities took Ms. Meng into custody in Vancouver, British Columbia, on behalf of the U.S., which had filed bank-fraud charges against her.

The detention of the 50-year-old celebrity businesswoman, and U.S. efforts to extradite her for trial in New York, transformed her into a national martyr in China and a symbol of America’s growing hostility to its nearest rival.

Days later, the two Canadians were seized in retaliation for Ms. Meng’s arrest. Michael Kovrig, 50, was on leave from Canada’s Foreign Ministry to work for the International Crisis Group in Hong Kong. Michael Spavor, 46, ran a business that helped students, athletes and academics visit North Korea. During their incarceration and harsh treatment, the two men were sympathetically shorthanded in news reports and by Western leaders as “the two Michaels.” Both men denied any wrongdoing.

The arrests marked a turning point in the growing power competition between the U.S. and China, helping shift it from mutual wariness to full-blown animosity. Unlike last century’s Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union, the prisoner skirmish reflected a U.S.-China battle for control of the international flow of data and, ultimately, primacy in global commerce.