[Canadian officials up to and including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have prevailed on the U.S. government for help, so far without results. China and the United States, meanwhile, have moved forward on a trade deal, signing “phase one” of their agreement last week.]
By
Amanda Coletta
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Meng Wanzhou, chief
financial officer of Huawei Technologies, wears an electronic
ankle monitor as she
leaves her Vancouver home for a court appearance in
October. (Jennifer
Gauthier/Bloomberg News)
|
It’s been more than a year since Huawei
“princess” Meng Wanzhou stepped off a Cathay Pacific flight in Vancouver and
into the waiting arms of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, detailed to arrest
her on behalf of the United States.
In the 13 months since, China has punished
Canada for Meng’s detention, holding two Canadians on vague national security
charges, resentencing a third to death and imposing restrictions on
agricultural imports.
Canadian officials up to and including Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau have prevailed on the U.S. government for help, so far
without results. China and the United States, meanwhile, have moved forward on
a trade deal, signing “phase one” of their agreement last week.
On Monday, the battle begins over Meng’s
extradition to the United States on fraud charges — a hearing that will be
closely watched in Beijing, Ottawa and Washington.
The U.S. Justice Department alleges that
Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of company founder Ren
Zhengfei, misled banks about the company’s relationship with its subsidiary
Skycom, effectively tricking them into violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Meng has denied wrongdoing.
Trudeau, who entered office in 2015 hoping to
deepen economic ties with China, faces growing calls to adopt a tougher
approach against an increasingly assertive Beijing.
As a middle power, Canada has struggled to go
toe-to-toe with China, its second-largest trading partner, particularly as its
closest ally, the United States, is focused on trade and distracted by other
crises at home and abroad.
“We are still caught in a very tough
position,” said Lynette Ong, a political scientist at the University of
Toronto. “And it’s very hard to see a way out in the very near future.”
Relations between Canada and China have
rarely been more strained.
When Canada arrested Meng at the behest of
the United States in December 2018, China threatened “grave consequences.” Nine
days later, Chinese authorities arrested former Canadian diplomat Michael
Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, charging them with stealing state
secrets. A third Canadian, who had been sentenced to 15 years in a Chinese
prison for drug smuggling, was retried and sentenced to death, and China
imposed restrictions on Canadian imports including canola seed.
Meng has been out on bail — a monitor adorns
her ankle — at the slightly larger of her two large homes in Vancouver, where
she wrote in a public letter last month that she has been reading and
“carefully” completing oil paintings. Kovrig and Spavor, whose cases have been
passed on to prosecutors, have yet to see a lawyer, their families or the sun.
China has cast Meng’s arrest as a U.S. plot
designed to stunt the country’s rise. President Trump has said more than once
that he might be willing to release Meng in exchange for concessions on trade —
statements Meng’s lawyers have cited to argue that the case against her is
political.
Canada has said repeatedly that Meng’s case
is a routine law enforcement matter that will be settled by the courts without
political influence. Officials have called securing the release of the two
Michaels an “absolute priority” and have rallied allies, including the United
States, to press China on their arrests.
Last month, though, Trudeau told the
French-language TVA network that he had asked the United States to hold off on
signing a “final and complete” trade agreement with China “that does not settle
the questions of Meng Wanzhou and the two Canadians.” China said that approach
was “doomed to fail.”
David Mulroney, who served as Canada’s
ambassador to China from 2009 to 2012 under the Conservative government of
Stephen Harper, said Canada “doesn’t have a lot of levers” in its conflict with
China. He called Trudeau’s statement “tremendously confusing” and “unhelpful”
because he “seemed to be reintroducing the possibility that this was a
political decision that could be waved away by the president.”
A spokeswoman for Trudeau declined to provide
clarification on his remarks. The White House referred questions to the Office
of the U.S. Trade Representative and the National Security Council. Neither
responded to requests for comment.
Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturer of
telecommunications equipment, has a growing presence in Canada. The country has
been conducting a security review of the company and is considering whether to
ban it from building its 5G networks.
“No country in its right mind would agree to
put in place the technology of a country that is threatening it at the heart of
its telecommunications infrastructure,” Mulroney said. “The fact that we’re
still discussing Huawei suggests to me the extent to which we’re afraid to
speak honestly to China and about China.”
In the face of one of Canada’s thorniest-ever
diplomatic challenges, the patience of some is wearing thin.
Parliament approved a motion brought forward
by the opposition Conservatives last month to create a committee to examine
Canada’s relationship with China. Two senators have called on Trudeau to levy
sanctions on Chinese officials directly implicated in the persecution of
minority Muslims in western China and over Beijing’s handling of the protests
in Hong Kong.
Several well-known Canadians, including
former prime minister Jean Chrétien and former foreign minister John Manley,
have suggested that Canada let Meng go or orchestrate a “prisoner exchange”
with China.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a former civil
servant, warned that both suggestions would set a dangerous precedent.
“We don’t want a situation where China gets
the message that putting pressure on Canada by kidnapping its citizens actually
works,” said McCuaig-Johnston, now a senior fellow at the University of
Alberta’s China Institute.
Others say Canada should consider sanctions,
tariffs and boycotts of Chinese products, expelling Chinese athletes training
here for the Olympic Games or pulling funding from China’s Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank.
Meng’s extradition hearing will have several
parts.
The hearing on Monday will consider the issue
of “double criminality” — whether the crimes of which Meng is accused in the
United States are also crimes in Canada.
If the judge finds they aren’t, Meng will be
freed. If the judge rules they are, the hearing will advance to a second stage
in June, focusing on whether her extradition is politically motivated and on
alleged breaches of Meng’s rights.
A third stage in November will consider
whether there’s enough evidence for extradition. Canadian judges approve close
to 90 percent of extradition requests from the United States, government data
shows.
If the court decides that Meng should be
“committed” for extradition, the decision on whether to transfer her to the
United States will fall to David Lametti, Canada’s justice minister.
Both sides can appeal, so the process could
take years.
In the meantime, not everyone believes that
taking tougher measures against China will work.
Ong said the Trudeau government’s messaging
on China has at times been confusing. But she said its “hands are tied.” The
country is bound by its extradition treaty with the United States, and it’s
unlikely that pushing China would lead to the release of the two Canadians.
“If [Trudeau] had been tough on the Chinese
as many Canadians have demanded,” Ong said, “it’s hard to see that we would
have seen a better outcome.”
Daniel Trefler, an economist at the
University of Toronto, said Canada has little power to influence China
unilaterally.
“It seems that some Canadians think we’re
living in the George Lucas world in which the empire can strike back, and that
simply isn’t the case,” Trefler said. “There’s nothing we can do that will
catch China’s attention.”
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