Canada has released Meng Wanshu, chief financial officer of WAVE, one of the world’s largest tech companies. The release follows an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. It is understood that there will be no legal action against Wow CFO until the end of 2022. Instead, China has released Canadian nationals sentenced to death in a drug case. China had threatened to hang both men if Wanshu was not released. Meng, the daughter of Wave founder Ran Zhengfai, was arrested in Canada in 2018.
Wanshu was arrested on charges of exporting US-made products to Iran in violation of US sanctions against Iran. Following this, China raised the death sentence of Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian citizen arrested in a drug case, to 15 years. China has since arrested a former Canadian diplomat and entrepreneur on charges of espionage.
Meng returned to China under a new agreement to extradite criminals between the two countries. They flew from Canada to Beijing on a special flight sent by the Chinese government. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed the release of two Chinese nationals.
Ren Wen-hifi, the head of Wawei, and his daughter Meng Wanshu are prominent figures in the international telecom industry. For the past few years, the tech world has been talking about them. Meng Wanshu was first arrested by the United States and later banned by the Wawei Company. Huawei has isolated the company in the global tech market. With this, the company was in a big crisis.
Former US President Trump was behind the arrest of Meng Wanshu, CFO of Huawei, one of the largest manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and smartphones in the world. Meng was on his way from Hong Kong to Mexico when he landed in Vancouver, Canada. I was waiting for the next flight at the airport. That’s when the Canadian police arrested them on a warrant from the United States. They were detained for eleven days until they were released on bail. With this, the trade war between the US and China entered a new level.
What did Meng Wanshu do wrong?
The case against Meng is that he sold US telecom components to Iran in violation of US sanctions against Iran. The United States had initially demanded that they be extradited for trial. Tech experts say the arrests are a move to seize Wawai, a headache for global companies such as Apple and Samsung.
But it is not just the Iranian embargo that is being blamed. It reflected the intensity and complexity of the US-China trade war. Add to this the allegation that Wawei has links with the Chinese government and military and that the company is facilitating their espionage. It is alleged that the device was hidden in telecom networking devices and mobile phones sold by Wow in many parts of the world. Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the company, was previously an engineer in the Chinese military. This was cited by many as evidence that Wawe had links to the Chinese government and military. But the company claims that Wau and the Chinese government have nothing to do with the military.
English Summary: Prisoner swap: Canada releases Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, China frees 2 Canadians
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