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Opinion | Stumbles over Meng Wanzhou’s arrest won’t help the US case against Huawei
- The US and Canada, where the mother of four is now expected to be detained for an extended period as she fights extradition to the US, have a PR headache on their hands
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As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced an onslaught of political attacks from all sides last week over accusations of back-room dealing, Beijing piled on the pressure.
When a member of China’s state-owned press questioned Canada’s judicial independence in light of accusations that Trudeau tried to interfere with a judicial inquiry into the misdeeds of SNC Lavalin – a company based in the prime minister’s hometown of Montreal – China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang played it up.
“It is not only the Chinese and Canadian people, but also people all around the world, that are very interested to see what the Canadian government is going to say about this,” Lu said.
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The exchange was meant to point out that Trudeau allegedly tried to do for SNC what he claimed to have no power to do for Huawei’s chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou: stick his nose into his Justice Department’s affairs.
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An inconsistency? Perhaps. Unfair? At first glance, yes. But the more important point is that the department continued with its inquiry into accusations that SNC bribed the Libyan government.
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