China Summons Canadian Envoy to Protest Huawei Executive's Arrest

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver last Saturday and reportedly charged with fraud for telling UK-based banking company HSBC that the Chinese tech giant was in full compliance with US sanctions against Iran while one of its subsidiaries was not in compliance of the restrictions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has summoned Canadian Ambassador to China John McCallum to issue a "strong protest" over Meng's arrest.

Calling Meng's detention "extremely nasty," the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged Ottawa to release the Huawei official immediately, warning that there would be "consequences" if Canada refused to do so.

Meng was arrested in Canada at the request of US law enforcement officials. Canada's Department of Justice confirmed last week that the senior Huawei executive had been detained on December 1 and that she was currently sought for extradition to the US, where the New York Times said she has faced "unspecified charges from the Eastern District of New York" since August.

Official details on the reasons for Meng's arrest have been slim, with the Star Vancouver reporting that US authorities believe that Meng knew that a company called SkyCom, which did business with Iran while the country was under international sanctions, was a subsidiary of Huawei until at least 2014.

According to court documents, the US learned of Meng's plans to stop over in Vancouver on route to a third country on November 29.

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang slammed Washington over Meng's detention, calling the move a "violation of human rights," and stressing that Ottawa and Washington had failed to provide a cogent explanation about the reasons for her detention.

The bail hearing for Meng's case is set to continue on Monday.

Huawei is one of the largest consumer electronics and telecommunications equipment companies in the world. Washington enacted legislation banning US government agencies from using Huawei products in mid-August amid concerns that the company's mobile phones "pose an unacceptable risk to the [Pentagon's] personnel, information and mission." Last month, the US was reported to have urged its allies, including Japan, to abandon Huawei products out of "security concerns."