Tag: Meng Wanzhou

The store in Shanghai — the first of a planned 1,500 — has hockey sticks for door handles and abundant maple leaves, on cups and dusted on the tops of lattes. And that’s been around and survived 60 years “I’m not the political expert,” Tim Hortons President Alex Macedo said Tuesday. What Macedo can control, though, is how much Tim Hortons reveals about its Canadian roots to Chinese consumers. “And that’s been around and survived 60 years.” “When we tested the brand and our products, people were fine. We didn’t test anything political, I don’t think. So I think it was a good day.” The China expansion is out of the Restaurant Brands International Inc. playbook. Cartesian builds and runs the restaurants, with the option to sub-franchise them. By using the same strategy — and the same private equity firm — with Tim Hortons in China, Macedo was confident the company will surpass its goal of opening 1,500 locations in 10 years, political tensions or not. “If the Chinese government is annoyed and feels that it has unfairly dealt with, then it will respond by telling its people that the Chinese people have been hurt.” It’s not yet clear whether the Huawei episode will reach that level, he said, though news of a spike in Chinese imports of Canadian soy beans in January could be interpreted as an encouraging sign for Canadian brands in China. And one of the most obvious things that Tim Hortons can do is to basically say they’re not American.”

Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada and faces possible extradition to the United States, is exploring a defense that claims U.S. charges against her are politically motivated, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday. Meng, the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., is the central figure in a high-stakes dispute between the United States and China. "The political overlay of this case is remarkable," Richard Peck, lead counsel for Meng, told the Toronto newspaper in a telephone interview. "That's probably the one thing that sets it apart from any other extradition case I've ever seen. It's got this cloud of politicization hanging over it," Peck added. The office of Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti and Peck did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Huawei spokesman declined comment. In December, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Reuters interview he would intervene in the Justice Department's case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China. Canada fired John McCallum, its ambassador to China, in January after he said Meng could make a strong argument against being sent to the United States. "He [Mr. McCallum] mentions some of the potential defenses - and certainly, I think any person that knows this area would see the potential for those defenses arising," Peck told the newspaper.

Wang Zhao/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Justice Department unveiled sweeping charges on Monday against the Chinese telecom firm Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, outlining a decade-long attempt by the company to steal trade secrets, obstruct a criminal investigation and evade economic sanctions on Iran. The pair of indictments, which were partly unsealed on Monday, come amid a broad and aggressive campaign by the United States to try to thwart China’s biggest telecom equipment maker. They also cite internal memos, obtained from Ms. Meng, that prosecutors said link her to an elaborate bank fraud that helped Huawei profit by evading Iran sanctions. Trump administration officials have insisted that Ms. Meng’s detention will not affect the trade talks, but the timing of the indictment coming so close to in-person discussions is likely to further strain relations between the two countries. The indictment now presents Canada with a politically charged decision: whether to extradite Ms. Meng to face the fraud charges, or make a legal or political determination to send her back to Beijing. No executives involved in the scheme were indicted, though six employees were fired. Mr. Whitaker fueled the speculation about an indictment of Mr. Ren when he told reporters on Monday that the criminal activity “goes all the way to the top of the company.” The Justice Department also accused Huawei of conspiring to steal trade secrets from a competitor, T-Mobile. The legal drama now shifts to Canada, where the government has warned that it will not extradite Ms. Meng if it appears that the request is being made for political reasons. The Trump administration is seeking significant changes to China’s trade practices, including what it says is a pattern of Beijing pressuring American companies to hand over valuable technology and outright theft of intellectual property. On Tuesday, American intelligence officials are expected to cite 5G investments by Chinese telecom companies, including Huawei, as a worldwide threat.

Is extradition essentially a legal process, as the Government of Canada says, or a political one, as China asserts? These alleged lies began as early as 2009. But “conduct by the requesting state that amounts to an abuse of process is a basis for the extradition court to refuse extradition,” Edmonton lawyer Nathan Whitling says. “I think the Trump comments open the door for the motive of the Department of Justice [of the U.S.] to be explored,” Toronto lawyer Frank Addario says. The Supreme Court halted the extradition. “The only decision that must be made by the Minister of Justice personally is the ultimate decision on whether to surrender an individual in the event a judge has ordered committal for extradition,” Justice spokeswoman Célia Canon says. “This is a case that just cries out for transparency.” When the Justice Minister makes his ultimate decision on surrender, what guides the decision? Lawyers for Ms. Meng “can raise almost any issue,” Mr. Addario says, “including the fact that the alleged crime had negligible effects on the requesting state and appears to be the product of a trade dispute.” Can the minister’s ruling be reviewed by the courts? Not if the minister says no to the extradition. The Supreme Court of Canada says courts should generally defer in extradition cases because the executive, not the courts, has expertise in international relations: “The courts must be extremely circumspect so as to avoid interfering unduly in decisions that involve the good faith and honour of this country in its relations with other states.” Ultimately, in extradition cases, good faith and honour cannot be contracted out to the courts.

Canada’s ambassador to China sought to retract comments suggesting politics would play a role in the potential extradition to the U.S. of a Huawei Technologies Co. executive, adding another setback to weeks of tension between the two countries. John McCallum said in a statement Thursday that he “misspoke” earlier this week when he discussed the case of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. On Tuesday, he said she had “strong arguments” to avoid extradition in part because U.S. President Donald Trump had discussed the case. Those comments contradicted weeks of assurances from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the process was in the hands of Canada’s court system. “As the government has consistently made clear, there has been no political involvement in this process.” Trudeau earlier Thursday brushed off calls from Canada’s main opposition party leader for McCallum’s removal, saying that such a step would do nothing to secure the release of two Canadians who were detained in China following the Huawei arrest. McCallum’s statement Thursday returned to the message that “Canada is conducting a fair, unbiased, and transparent legal proceeding with respect to Meng Wanzhou,” and that “Canada respects its international legal commitments, including by honoring its extradition treaty with the United States.” The U.S. has until Jan. 30 to present a formal request for extradition. Meng has been released on bail and is living in a Vancouver home. At that lengthy meeting with reporters he also said Meng could defend herself because of the “extraterritorial aspect to her case” and because Canada didn’t “sign on” to U.S. sanctions against Iran she may have violated. Support independent journalism from China. Subscribe to Caixin Global starting at $0.99.

Canada’s ambassador to China sought to retract comments suggesting politics would play a role in the potential extradition to the U.S. of a Huawei Technologies Co. executive, adding another setback to weeks of tension between the two countries. John McCallum said in a statement Thursday that he “misspoke” earlier this week when he discussed the case of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. Those comments contradicted weeks of assurances from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the process was in the hands of Canada’s court system. “As the government has consistently made clear, there has been no political involvement in this process.” Trudeau earlier Thursday brushed off calls from Canada’s main opposition party leader for McCallum’s removal, saying that such a step would do nothing to secure the release of two Canadians who were detained in China following the Huawei arrest. Canada is also seeking clemency for a third citizen who was sentenced to death, with China rejecting international pressure to intervene while suggesting Canadian politicians also have the power to free Meng because she’s committed no crime in Canada. McCallum’s statement Thursday returned to the message that “Canada is conducting a fair, unbiased, and transparent legal proceeding with respect to Meng Wanzhou,” and that “Canada respects its international legal commitments, including by honoring its extradition treaty with the United States.” The U.S. has until Jan. 30 to present a formal request for extradition. Meng has been released on bail and is living in a Vancouver home. At that lengthy meeting with reporters he also said Meng could defend herself because of the “extraterritorial aspect to her case” and because Canada didn’t “sign on” to U.S. sanctions against Iran she may have violated. Canada is reviewing whether to ban Huawei from its next-generation 5G wireless network, a move already taken or under consideration by some allies. “It’s not so much that Huawei poses a risk, it’s that China poses a risk in terms of its worldwide intelligence collection,” Elcock said in a BNN Bloomberg television interview.

The Story: Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the vice chairperson and chief financial officer of giant Chinese tech company Huawei. The arrest, on December 1,...

The Story: Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the vice chairperson and chief financial officer of giant Chinese tech company Huawei. The arrest, on December 1,...