Huawei exec's fate in limbo as Canada court adjourns extradition hearing

US seeks extradition of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in December 2018 during a flight stopover in Vancouver.

The Canadian court tussle over the arrest of a Huawei telecoms executive was put in limbo Thursday when a judge adjourned the case that pits the United States against China.

Washington is seeking extradition of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in December 2018 during a flight stopover in Vancouver.

Huawei has been effectively banned from the US, which insists the Chinese company is an espionage risk.

"I'm reserving judgement," British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes said at the end of a four-day hearing.

Further hearings are scheduled for April, June and September on allegations of a conspiracy to arrest Meng—the eldest daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei—and to crush the Shenzhen-based Huawei.

If extradited, Meng would face US prosecution on charges of fraud linked to violations of sanctions against Iran.

Extradition

Four days of legal arguments this week focused on whether the US charges would stand up in Canada, a key test for extradition.

Appeals by either side could also drag out the case—which has strained relations between the world's two largest economies—for years.

Each morning of the hearing, Meng walked out of one of her two luxury homes where she is staying dressed in black business attire, with her tracking ankle-bracelet clearly visible.

She rarely cracked a smile in court and followed proceedings diligently, listening with an interpreter's help, flipping through documents and stepping out during breaks to chat with her husband in the public gallery.

Business Standard

We don't spy for China: Huawei founder breaks silence, praises Trump

Ren told a group of reporters on Tuesday that he missed his daughter very much, and that he would wait to see if President Trump intervened in her case.

To entrepreneurs in China, he is a legend akin to Steve Jobs.

To United States officials, he is the secretive mastermind behind a company that is extending the Chinese government’s ability to infiltrate computer systems and data networks around the world.

But for all his fame and power, Ren Zhengfei, the 74-year-old founder and chief executive of the Chinese technology giant Huawei, may no longer have the luxury of letting his company’s success speak for itself.

In his first public comments since United States authorities arranged for the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou, who is also Huawei’s chief financial officer, Mr. Ren told a group of reporters on Tuesday that he missed his daughter very much, and that he would wait to see if President Trump intervened in her case. He called Mr. Trump a “great president,” and said that his tax cuts had helped American business.

Ms. Meng was arrested in Canada last month on accusations of defrauding banks to help Huawei’s business in Iran. Washington is seeking her extradition, but Mr. Trump has suggested that he might intercede if it would help China and the United States reach a deal to end their trade war. Huawei has said that it is unaware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng.

And last week, the Polish authorities said they had arrested a Huawei employee there on charges of spying for Beijing. The company fired the man on Saturday.

Mr. Ren insisted that his company had not spied for China.

“I love my country. I support the Communist Party. But I will never do anything to harm any country in the world,” Mr. Ren said on Tuesday. A company spokesman confirmed his remarks.

Huawei has 180,000 employees and has become the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment. It estimates that it generated more than $100 billion in sales last year, and it sells more smartphones around the world than Apple. Yet Mr. Ren seldom appears in public.

When he has spoken to the news media in the past, he has played down his achievements, attributing Huawei’s success to its employees’ hard work. He has said that his company has never spied for any government — an assertion that has not eased the concerns of American counterintelligence officials.

For most of its existence, Huawei was opaque to people in China, too.

It was founded in 1987, but it did not begin publishing the names and biographies of its board members until its 2010 annual report. Mr. Ren spoke to the news media for the first time in 2013. The next year, he told The Independent of London that he had no hobbies, prompting a colleague to lean in and suggest that he enjoyed reading and drinking tea.

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