The shock arrest of Huawei Technologies Co.
VANCOUVER: A Canadian judge granted bail to Huawei Technologies Co. finance chief Meng Wanzhou, setting the stage for a new confrontation with China as the U.S. seeks the executive’s extradition to face charges over violating Iran sanctions.
The judge’s decision Tuesday frees Ms. Meng after more than a week in detention, though it requires her to submit to a curfew, electronic monitoring and a limited range of travel in the Vancouver area. He set bail at 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.5 million), and said she is due back in court in February.
The executive was arrested on Dec. 1 at the behest of U.S. authorities who allege she lied to banks about ties between Huawei, which is based in China, and a company that did business in Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Ms. Meng, the 46-year-old daughter of Huawei’s billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei, has denied those allegations.
She now faces possible extradition to the U.S., where she would await multiple criminal charges that each carry up to 30 years in prison.
Huawei, which has said it isn’t aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng, said in a statement Tuesday it is confident “the Canadian and U.S. legal systems will reach a just conclusion in the following proceedings.”
Ms. Meng’s arrest added a new dynamic to months of intense back-and-forth between the U.S. and China over issues ranging from tariffs to intellectual-property theft to dominance in key technologies such as 5G services. Those tensions had appeared to be easing as the two countries called a cease-fire in their trade tiff; then Ms. Meng was detained, threatening to undermine the detente.
The U.S. and China recently moved forward with a new round of trade talks, while Chinese state media and social-media censors have made an apparent effort to separate the Huawei issue from the negotiations.
Still, Ms. Meng’s arrest drew a sharp response last week, when China warned Canada to release her or face unspecified “severe consequences.”
A Canadian foreign ministry spokesman previously said there was no political interference in the decision to detain Ms. Meng. On Tuesday, Canada confirmed a former diplomat who researches North Korea and other issues for a global-monitoring group was detained in China. The terms of his detention weren’t clear. - WSJ
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