Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou Loses Major Court Battle As B.C. Judge Rules Extradition Bid Should Proceed

In a closely-watched decision today, the Supreme Court of
British Columbia published a key decision in the extradition case
of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei Technologies, China’s largest
telecommunications company and a frequent target of U.S.
policymakers.

In its ruling, the court said that the case met the standard for
“double criminality,” and thus the extradition hearing will be
allowed to continue. That decision represents a major blow to
Huawei, which had hoped to end the suit and bring Meng home back to
China.

It’s a pivotal moment in the long-running saga over the fate of
Meng and Huawei itself. She was arrested at Vancouver International
Airport on December 1, 2018 at the request of U.S. authorities, who
eventually indicted her and Huawei itself with a bevy of fraud
charges.

Those charges stemmed from an investigation by the U.S.
Department of Justice looking into Huawei’s ties with a number of
affiliates including Skycom Tech Co Ltd, which is alleged to have
sold telecommunications equipment to Iran in violation of U.S.
sanctions. Huawei uses American technology in its products, and
under U.S. export laws, companies are forbidden from transferring
that technology to countries under sanction. Huawei has previously
denied that it controlled the companies, and has vigorously
defended itself in the case.

Meng has been under house arrest in Vancouver for almost a year
and a half pending deliberations of the Canadian courts. The case
has seen intense scrutiny from China, the U.S. and Canadian
authorities, and has become a symbol of the continuing trade fight
between the U.S. and China.

Today’s decision comes from a narrowly focused court hearing in
January on a Canadian legal doctrine known as “double criminality,”
which states that a subject needs to face criminal charges in both
Canada and the receiving country in order for an extradition to be
approved. While courts generally handle all aspects of extradition
at once, the judge in this case, associate chief justice Heather
Holmes, decided to split Meng’s extradition hearing into phases,
given that without double criminality, the case would be
automatically closed.

The decision on Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder
and CEO Ren Zhengfei, is just one of many different battles that
Huawei has faced in recent months.

Over the weekend, the company faced a new blow to its prospects
in the West after the United Kingdom, which had been a lukewarm but
steady supporter of using Huawei’s equipment in its next-generation
5G networks, announced that it was reversing its decision and would
wean itself off of Huawei equipment over the coming years.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Trump administration has focused
intently on the company as it attempts to shift the balance of
power in the United States’ trade relations with China. Two weeks
ago, the Trump administration extended its technology export
restrictions on Huawei, endangering the company’s ability to
product its chips and smartphones. TSMC, the world’s largest
contract semiconductor fab, said that it wasn’t accepting new
orders from Huawei in light of the new restrictions. At the same
time, TSMC announced a massive, $12 billion manufacturing facility
in Arizona.

While the Trump administration has made economic combat with
Huawei a policy priority, that strategy has not been endorsed by
the entire federal government, with departments and agencies like
the Department of Defense worried that the restrictions on export
licenses could ultimately have deleterious, second-order effects on
American industrial competitiveness.

Indeed, given the continuing situation with the U.S., Huawei
itself has said that one of its most important missions is to build
its equipment using entirely domestic Chinese components, veering
around U.S. export controls and breaking free of their confines.
Assisting on that front is China’s government itself, which has put
up billions of dollars in new funding to build up its domestic
chipmaking capabilities.

It’s a complex situation, and one that Western policymakers have
struggled to come to a unified approach on. As our writer Scott
Bade described a few weeks ago, countries like Australia, the
United Kingdom, and the United States are struggling to come to
agreement on Huawei and China’s tech forays more generally, with
each country approaching the issue from its own point-of-view and
from different levels of engagement with the Chinese mainland.

While the Meng case is just the latest salvo in the on-going
battle here, expect more skirmishes ahead.

Culled from techcrunch.com

In a closely-watched decision today, the Supreme Court of
British Columbia published a key decision in the extradition case
of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei Technologies, China’s largest
telecommunications company and a frequent target of U.S.
policymakers.

In its ruling, the court said that the case met the standard for
“double criminality,” and thus the extradition hearing will be
allowed to continue. That decision represents a major blow to
Huawei, which had hoped to end the suit and bring Meng home back to
China.

It’s a pivotal moment in the long-running saga over the fate of
Meng and Huawei itself. She was arrested at Vancouver International
Airport on December 1, 2018 at the request of U.S. authorities, who
eventually indicted her and Huawei itself with a bevy of fraud
charges.

Those charges stemmed from an investigation by the U.S.
Department of Justice looking into Huawei’s ties with a number of
affiliates including Skycom Tech Co Ltd, which is alleged to have
sold telecommunications equipment to Iran in violation of U.S.
sanctions. Huawei uses American technology in its products, and
under U.S. export laws, companies are forbidden from transferring
that technology to countries under sanction. Huawei has previously
denied that it controlled the companies, and has vigorously
defended itself in the case.

Meng has been under house arrest in Vancouver for almost a year
and a half pending deliberations of the Canadian courts. The case
has seen intense scrutiny from China, the U.S. and Canadian
authorities, and has become a symbol of the continuing trade fight
between the U.S. and China.

Today’s decision comes from a narrowly focused court hearing in
January on a Canadian legal doctrine known as “double criminality,”
which states that a subject needs to face criminal charges in both
Canada and the receiving country in order for an extradition to be
approved. While courts generally handle all aspects of extradition
at once, the judge in this case, associate chief justice Heather
Holmes, decided to split Meng’s extradition hearing into phases,
given that without double criminality, the case would be
automatically closed.

The decision on Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder
and CEO Ren Zhengfei, is just one of many different battles that
Huawei has faced in recent months.

Over the weekend, the company faced a new blow to its prospects
in the West after the United Kingdom, which had been a lukewarm but
steady supporter of using Huawei’s equipment in its next-generation
5G networks, announced that it was reversing its decision and would
wean itself off of Huawei equipment over the coming years.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Trump administration has focused
intently on the company as it attempts to shift the balance of
power in the United States’ trade relations with China. Two weeks
ago, the Trump administration extended its technology export
restrictions on Huawei, endangering the company’s ability to
product its chips and smartphones. TSMC, the world’s largest
contract semiconductor fab, said that it wasn’t accepting new
orders from Huawei in light of the new restrictions. At the same
time, TSMC announced a massive, $12 billion manufacturing facility
in Arizona.

While the Trump administration has made economic combat with
Huawei a policy priority, that strategy has not been endorsed by
the entire federal government, with departments and agencies like
the Department of Defense worried that the restrictions on export
licenses could ultimately have deleterious, second-order effects on
American industrial competitiveness.

Indeed, given the continuing situation with the U.S., Huawei
itself has said that one of its most important missions is to build
its equipment using entirely domestic Chinese components, veering
around U.S. export controls and breaking free of their confines.
Assisting on that front is China’s government itself, which has put
up billions of dollars in new funding to build up its domestic
chipmaking capabilities.

It’s a complex situation, and one that Western policymakers have
struggled to come to a unified approach on. As our writer Scott
Bade described a few weeks ago, countries like Australia, the
United Kingdom, and the United States are struggling to come to
agreement on Huawei and China’s tech forays more generally, with
each country approaching the issue from its own point-of-view and
from different levels of engagement with the Chinese mainland.

While the Meng case is just the latest salvo in the on-going
battle here, expect more skirmishes ahead.

Culled from techcrunch.com