UpdateMeng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Telecom and Technology Group, signed a deal with the US Department of Justice. This will remove the fraud and conspiracy charges against the CEO. Soon after the agreement, it was announced that China had in turn released two alleged Canadian spies.
On Friday, the US government proposed in a New York court that the trial of the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, be “postponed” until the end of 2022. The director has been tried in court for three years, including bank fraud. The prosecutor then agrees not to prosecute if the accused agrees to meet certain requirements. The government has already brought charges against one of the suspects, but has done nothing about it. The deal expires on December 1, 2022 and will have a term of four years thereafter.
Meng appeared in a video Friday from Canada, where she is under house arrest, at the hearing. Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, pleaded not guilty to the charge in court.
Shortly after the deal was announced and her house arrest lifted, the principal left for China. She boarded a plane bound for Shenzhen, according to Canadian television pictures.
The deal will end the long legal battle and tension between China, the United States and Canada.
Arrest
The 49-year-old businesswoman was detained at Canada’s Vancouver Airport on December 1, 2018, at the request of the United States. The US authorities wanted her to be tried for bank fraud. According to US courts, No. 2 lied to Huawei about links between the telecoms group and Skycom during a 2013 meeting in Hong Kong with an HSBC executive. This branch sold equipment to Iran, which is a violation of US trade sanctions against Tehran.
Tensions between China, the United States and Canada
Meng was forced to remain in Vancouver, Canada, pending his extradition to the United States. The Wall Street Journal reported that US prosecutors are now allowing Meng to return to her native China.
Meng’s arrest put significant strains on relations between China on the one hand and the United States and Canada on the other. Soon after the arrest, China detained two Canadians on suspicion of espionage: Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The latter was sentenced in August to 11 years in prison.
However, both of them have been released and are on their way to Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this on Friday. Trudeau told a news conference that the plane carrying the Canadians had already left Chinese airspace for Canada. Kovrig was a former diplomat, and Spavor a businessman.
Beijing insisted the arrests of the two men had nothing to do with Wanzhou, but Trudeau refused, accusing the Chinese government of “hostage diplomacy.” He also said that the trial of his own citizens did not meet international standards of fair justice.
Informed sources told Reuters news agency that Huawei will not be part of the deal between Wenzhou and the judiciary and continues to fight the allegations against the group. Huawei and the US Department of Justice have yet to respond to the case, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Hit and weaken Huawei
The Chinese government has always said that the US government, under President Donald Trump, mainly wanted to hit and weaken Huawei. In recent weeks, Wing’s lawyers have argued that the United States is primarily guilty of abuse of the Code of Procedure.
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