https://www.scmp.com/rss/266559/feed Ian Young is the Post's Vancouver correspondent. A journalist for more than 20 years, he worked for Australian newspapers and the London Evening Standard before arriving in Hong Kong in 1997. There he won or shared awards for excellence in investigative reporting and human rights reporting, and the HK News Awards Scoop of the Year. He moved to Canada with his wife in 2010. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Migration from Hong Kong to Canada has soared to levels not seen since 1998, the year after the city’s handover to China, according to new data. The exodus from the territory comes after Ottawa set up new exit routes for young Hongkongers in response to the crackdown on anti-government protests in 2019 and Beijing’s imposition of a national security law in 2020. But the flow of Hongkongers to Canada has cascaded through other immigration and visa categories too, the data shows. Large numbers of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3172326/hong-kong-migration-canada-soars-levels-unseen-1998-domino?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3172326/hong-kong-migration-canada-soars-levels-unseen-1998-domino?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Mar 2022 20:32:51 +0000 Flight data provided by an air traffic monitoring service has depicted a battle for control of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, suggesting the plane pulled out of a 22,000 foot nosedive and briefly started climbing before a second dive sent it crashing into the ground. No survivors have been found in the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 that crashed on Monday in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. There were 132 people aboard. The data published by FlightRadar24 suggests the plane was at an... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3171470/china-eastern-airlines-flight-mu5735-data-suggest-pilots-pulled-out?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3171470/china-eastern-airlines-flight-mu5735-data-suggest-pilots-pulled-out?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Mar 2022 23:24:27 +0000 On February 24, Hong Kong immigrant Fermi Wong Wai-fun caught a bus from her new home in Bristol, England, bound for a protest in London’s embassy district. Wong, a veteran of Hong Kong’s protest movement, had moved to Britain in late 2020 amid fears of being targeted by authorities for her activism. But her destination last month was not China’s embassy – it was Russia’s. She said watching news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began that day had triggered a familiar sense of outrage. “It... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3170738/hong-kong-protest-veterans-around-world-are-embracing-ukraines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3170738/hong-kong-protest-veterans-around-world-are-embracing-ukraines?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Mar 2022 20:43:57 +0000 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used a historic address to Canada’s parliament on Tuesday to call for a no-fly zone to protect his country from Russian forces, asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau how he would feel if Vancouver or Toronto came under attack. Zelensky, delivering the first virtual address to the House of Commons in Ottawa, said that while he was grateful for Canada’s support since Russia’s invasion of his country, “you all need to do more”. “We are not asking for much …... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3170603/ukraines-volodymyr-zelensky-addresses-canadian-parliament-tells-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3170603/ukraines-volodymyr-zelensky-addresses-canadian-parliament-tells-it?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Mar 2022 16:54:06 +0000 Sobbing, singing and standing ovations are not typical responses in a Vancouver cinema, much less for a 152-minute documentary. But Revolution of Our Times, director Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai’s visceral account of Hong Kong’s 2019 upheaval, is being received like no typical movie in a Canadian city that has served as a proxy arena for conflict between supporters and opponents of the protest movement that encompassed broadly democratic and anti-government goals. All 3,000 tickets for 14 Vancouver... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3169741/audiences-sing-sob-and-chant-hong-kong-revolution-film-sold?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3169741/audiences-sing-sob-and-chant-hong-kong-revolution-film-sold?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:19:35 +0000 A Canadian court has ruled that a Chinese government agency responsible for citizens living abroad and liaising with overseas Chinese communities engages in acts of espionage that are “contrary to Canada’s interests”. The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office – which is part of the Communist Party of China’s United Front Work Department – had conducted “covert action and intelligence gathering against [overseas] Chinese communities and other minorities around the world”, according to the ruling... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3168151/overseas-chinese-affairs-office-engages-espionage-harms-canada?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3168151/overseas-chinese-affairs-office-engages-espionage-harms-canada?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Feb 2022 20:45:23 +0000 On June 29, 2019, a flight from Vancouver, Canada, was greeted on the tarmac at Shenzhen’s Baoan International Airport by police officers. They boarded the Boeing 787 and emerged with a small, gaunt man dressed in a white polo shirt, then paused for a photo at the top of the stairs in the afternoon sunshine before marching corruption suspect Liu Baofeng off to face Chinese justice. The former securities trader’s arrest was hailed by state news agency Xinhua as the culmination of yet another “red... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3167481/dozens-interpol-red-notices-chinese-suspects-vanish-view-skynet-graft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3167481/dozens-interpol-red-notices-chinese-suspects-vanish-view-skynet-graft?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Feb 2022 21:30:16 +0000 The University of Toronto has apologised after lucky lai see packets containing “hell bank notes” were distributed at a student residence, in an attempt to celebrate the Lunar New Year that went horribly awry and offended some students. Distributing hell money – fake currency that is burned to commemorate the dead – is considered gravely offensive in Chinese culture. Triad gangsters sometimes do so as a death threat or a form of intimidation. The recent blunder at the Graduate House residence... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3165902/lai-see-envelopes-contained-hell-money-dead-lunar-new-year?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3165902/lai-see-envelopes-contained-hell-money-dead-lunar-new-year?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Feb 2022 19:28:25 +0000 Telecoms giant China Mobile is suing a former senior executive it accuses of fleeing to Canada amid an investigation into alleged fraud that it says cost hundreds of millions of yuan, and is laying claim to Vancouver real estate it believes he bought with the proceeds. Li Xiangdong – whom mainland media nicknamed the “godfather of music” for his dominant role in the musical ringtone and download sector – has appeared on Chinese wanted lists since at least 2015. He is alleged to have engaged in a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/money-wealth/article/3164595/china-mobile-lays-claim-vancouver-homes-it-says-were-bought?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/money-wealth/article/3164595/china-mobile-lays-claim-vancouver-homes-it-says-were-bought?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Jan 2022 21:31:06 +0000 Canada and Taiwan will begin talks on a foreign investment arrangement, their governments have announced, in what Taiwan said was a milestone for trade relations as it tries to shore up its ties around the world. Ottawa’s international trade minister Mary Ng made the agreement with John Deng, Taiwan’s “minister without portfolio” on trade, during a call on Sunday. A readout of the call provided by Ng’s department on Monday said that “exploratory discussions” would begin on a possible foreign... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3162875/taiwan-and-canada-begin-talks-foreign-investment-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3162875/taiwan-and-canada-begin-talks-foreign-investment-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Jan 2022 18:07:51 +0000 Canadian critics of the Chinese government are decrying the demise of a parliamentary committee that had been a thorn in Beijing’s side since 2019, with a former ambassador calling it a “kneecapping” by China and the result of a foreign-influence operation. David Mulroney, Canada’s Beijing envoy from 2009 to 2012, directly attributed the decision by the Conservative opposition not to reconvene the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations, to the party’s losses in heavily Chinese electorates... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3160614/ex-ambassador-blames-beijing-kneecapping-canadian-parliaments?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3160614/ex-ambassador-blames-beijing-kneecapping-canadian-parliaments?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Dec 2021 22:17:57 +0000 It is known as the “Vancouver model” – a criminal technique that turned the Canadian city into a byword for international money laundering. The term, coined by Australian academic Professor John Langdale of Macquarie University in 2017, described a process in which launderers would simultaneously smuggle Chinese money to Canada in circumvention of Beijing’s cash export laws, while sending Canadian drug money back to gangsters’ bank accounts in China, all facilitated by British Columbia casinos,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3160485/vancouver-became-byword-money-laundering-fuelled-chinese-cash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3160485/vancouver-became-byword-money-laundering-fuelled-chinese-cash?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Dec 2021 21:34:38 +0000 France will not follow the lead of some other Western governments by boycotting the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, although any human rights abuses in China must be condemned, the education minister said on Thursday. However, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Paris should take a common stand with other European Union countries on a possible diplomatic boycott. Le Drian, who held a joint news conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Paris on Thursday,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3159090/beijing-winter-olympics-france-will-not-boycott-says-minister?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3159090/beijing-winter-olympics-france-will-not-boycott-says-minister?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Dec 2021 11:09:33 +0000 Canada and Britain have announced diplomatic boycotts of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, joining the US and Australia in taking such action amid allegations of human rights abuses in China. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said his government was “deeply troubled” by Chinese rights violations. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly cited concerns about the treatment of the Uygur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region, in line with the US and Australian explanations for... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3158979/canada-joins-diplomatic-boycott-beijing-winter-olympics-citing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3158979/canada-joins-diplomatic-boycott-beijing-winter-olympics-citing?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Dec 2021 18:00:46 +0000 Beijing’s ambassador has warned that Canada risks driving away Chinese investors and companies if it bans Huawei Technologies from its 5G internet infrastructure, saying he hoped Canada had learned a lesson from the outcome of the “Meng Wanzhou incident”. Cong Peiwu, addressing a webinar hosted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation think tank on Tuesday, contended that security concerns surrounding Huawei had been “invented by the United States and the main purpose is to crack... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3158831/chinas-ambassador-warns-canada-against-huawei-5g-ban-saying?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3158831/chinas-ambassador-warns-canada-against-huawei-5g-ban-saying?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Dec 2021 19:26:20 +0000 Canadian ambassador to China Dominic Barton is resigning, just months after working to secure Beijing’s release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, a task he described as “the honour of a lifetime”. Barton said in an exit statement on Monday that his resignation was effective December 31. The former global managing partner of consulting giant McKinsey and Co was appointed ambassador in 2019, during a deep ebb in Canada’s relationship with China. Huawei Technologies’ chief financial... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3158690/canadian-ambassador-china-dominic-barton-resigns-wake-two?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3158690/canadian-ambassador-china-dominic-barton-resigns-wake-two?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:18:18 +0000 Ethnic Chinese are twice as likely as other Canadians to own and live in housing that is unaffordable compared to their incomes, and only about half as likely to live in rented accommodation, according to a newly released government findings. The data reveals a big gap between many Chinese-Canadians’ local earnings and their housing costs, that urban planning academic Andy Yan said could be explained by pre-immigration wealth and other foreign capital, mixed with local lending. “But there are... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3157813/chinese-canadians-twice-likely-own-and-live-unaffordable-homes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3157813/chinese-canadians-twice-likely-own-and-live-unaffordable-homes?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Nov 2021 21:30:26 +0000 Wired internet never reached the village of Lac La Hache, in the remote eastern interior of British Columbia. So when Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies and local firm ABC Communications announced in 2019 that they were teaming up to provide a high-speed, hi-tech wireless solution, it was big news. And not just in the tiny retirement and recreational community, population 258, that is known for its trout fishing and takes its name from an axe dropped in its eponymous lake by a French... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3157141/why-canadian-ban-huawei-5g-may-come-whimper-not-bang?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3157141/why-canadian-ban-huawei-5g-may-come-whimper-not-bang?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Nov 2021 21:21:33 +0000 The mother of Canadian pop star Wanting Qu has been convicted of corruption by a Chinese court and sentenced to life imprisonment, more than five years after a trial in which prosecutors had requested the death penalty. The Harbin City Intermediate People’s Court announced late on Wednesday that Zhang Mingjie, 66, a former planning official with the municipal government in the capital of northern Heilongjiang province, had been convicted and sentenced that morning, ending years of uncertainty... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3156446/canadian-pop-star-wanting-qus-mother-sentenced-life-imprisonment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3156446/canadian-pop-star-wanting-qus-mother-sentenced-life-imprisonment?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Nov 2021 20:21:51 +0000 Vancouver City Councillor Melissa De Genova was walking through the ground floor of City Hall, pushing her baby daughter in a stroller, when she was approached by a man carrying an open shopping bag, filled with bundles of cash. “I could clearly see the money in it … it was stacked quite neatly,” she recalled. Where could he pay his taxes, he asked the surprised politician. De Genova said the incident in July 2018 wasn’t the first such scene she had witnessed at City Hall; on another occasion... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3154924/someone-paid-vancouver-city-tax-bill-c47700-cash-money?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3154924/someone-paid-vancouver-city-tax-bill-c47700-cash-money?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Nov 2021 21:40:24 +0000 A Canadian court has ordered federal police to destroy a handwritten note carrying the passwords to Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou’s phones. The note became a controversial piece of evidence in Meng’s now-defunct extradition case when it emerged that officers had obtained it in breach of privacy laws. The Supreme Court of British Columbia’s order, dated October 21 and made public on Monday, also demanded that Meng’s electronic devices be handed over to her lawyers, as well as... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3153665/court-orders-canadian-police-destroy-note-meng-wanzhous-phone?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3153665/court-orders-canadian-police-destroy-note-meng-wanzhous-phone?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Oct 2021 00:13:52 +0000 Canadian policies seeking wealthy and high-skilled immigrants may be influencing diabetes rates among its Chinese communities, according to a study which found mainland Chinese newcomers at greatly elevated risk compared to compatriots back in China, as well as fellow immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The “unexpectedly heterogeneous” diabetes rates between the three groups demanded urgent and targeted public health strategies, said the study, published in Diabetes Research and Clinical... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3153659/diabetes-chinese-canadians-linked-immigration-policies-favouring?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3153659/diabetes-chinese-canadians-linked-immigration-policies-favouring?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Oct 2021 20:33:30 +0000 Health authorities in Vancouver are seizing control of the assets and operations of a troubled care home catering mostly to Chinese elders, where 41 residents died in a catastrophic Covid-19 outbreak that began almost a year ago. The pandemic had exposed “issues” at the charitable Little Mountain Residential Care and Housing Society, which has owned and operated Little Mountain Place in East Vancouver since 1987, said the president of the society’s board, Bob Breen, in a statement released by... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3152968/health-authorities-seize-vancouver-care-home-chinese-elders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3152968/health-authorities-seize-vancouver-care-home-chinese-elders?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Oct 2021 04:16:07 +0000 China’s foreign ministry has called on Canada to be “non-discriminatory” towards Huawei Technologies Co. and other mainland firms after a survey found more than three-quarters of Canadians want the tech giant banned from the country’s 5G networks. The Nanos poll was conducted for The Globe and Mail newspaper after China released two Canadians whose detention for almost three years was viewed by Ottawa as hostage diplomacy. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were released last month on the same... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3152125/china-wants-non-discriminatory-treatment-huawei-survey-says-76?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3152125/china-wants-non-discriminatory-treatment-huawei-survey-says-76?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Oct 2021 20:18:24 +0000 A South Korean tycoon who was behind one of Metro Vancouver’s biggest property developments has lost a long court battle against extradition to his native country, where he faces multimillion-dollar fraud charges. Jung Myung-soo was led away in handcuffs on Thursday after a judge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered him committed for extradition. Canada’s justice minister will make the final decision whether to surrender him to Korean prosecutors. However, Jung’s lawyer Tony Paisana... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3151583/south-korean-tycoon-wanted-multimillion-dollar-fraud-charges?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3151583/south-korean-tycoon-wanted-multimillion-dollar-fraud-charges?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Oct 2021 22:37:27 +0000 Fewer than 2,000 of the estimated 300,000 Canadians living in Hong Kong cast ballots in last week’s federal election, and the true number is likely less than half that, overseas voting data suggests. It is a rate dwarfed by political participation among Canadians elsewhere, and indicates either little awareness or little enthusiasm in Hong Kong for changes in Canadian election rules that allow long-term non-residents to vote. In fact, the number of voting kits sent to Canadians in Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150648/fewer-2000-300000-canadians-hong-kong-voted-last-weeks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150648/fewer-2000-300000-canadians-hong-kong-voted-last-weeks?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:41:37 +0000 Somewhere high above the Arctic, as darkness descended on Friday evening, Meng Wanzhou began to type. Her day had started with a video appearance in a Brooklyn court. It was ending with a flight back to China, after almost three years trapped in the eye of a diplomatic storm as she battled a US bid to have her extradited from Canada to face trial for fraud. But that was now behind her. Eventually she posted the long and poetically worded message on WeChat. She described how she sobbed... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150104/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhous-tear-soaked-message-moment-im?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150104/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhous-tear-soaked-message-moment-im?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Sep 2021 09:22:09 +0000 US prosecutors depict the deal that allowed Meng Wanzhou to leave Canada and fly home to China as a victory – but if so, it is an odd one after so much thwarted effort to secure her for trial. Ultimately, the Huawei Technologies Co executive has been convicted of no crime, will serve no sentence and pay no penalty. Instead, Meng admits wrongdoing without admitting guilt. The language employed by the US Department of Justice to describe the deferred prosecution agreement was at odds with that... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150082/no-crime-and-no-punishment-meng-wanzhou-admits-wrongdoing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150082/no-crime-and-no-punishment-meng-wanzhou-admits-wrongdoing?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Sep 2021 06:50:10 +0000 Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou is flying back to China, after reaching a deal on Friday with prosecutors in New York that effectively resolves a US fraud case that had kept her in legal limbo in Vancouver for nearly three years. Shortly after Meng’s flight entered Chinese airspace, state broadcaster CCTV quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying as saying that China’s position on the Meng Wanzhou incident has been “consistent and clear”. “Facts have already fully proved that... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150050/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-expected-resolve-us-charges-brooklyn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150050/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-expected-resolve-us-charges-brooklyn?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Sep 2021 14:27:44 +0000 Almost as soon as he entered Canada’s parliament in 2019, Conservative Kenny Chiu became a prominent advocate for what he called Hong Kong’s “political freedom”, and a tough critic of Beijing. Weeks after being comfortably elected in Steveston-Richmond East, one of Canada’s most ethnically Chinese electorates, Chiu was back in his birthplace of Hong Kong as an international monitor for the city’s district council elections. He would go on to become vice-chair of parliament’s subcommittee on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3149738/conservative-vote-plunged-canadas-most-chinese-electorates-did?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3149738/conservative-vote-plunged-canadas-most-chinese-electorates-did?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Sep 2021 20:18:57 +0000 Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will form a new government after securing the most seats in Monday’s election, but he failed in his gamble that his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic would see him rewarded with a coveted majority. Instead, Trudeau’s Liberal Party is headed for minority status again, and is set to continue to rely on the support of the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) to hold power. The Liberals were leading in 156 ridings, the Conservatives in 121, the Quebec-based... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3149507/canada-re-elects-justin-trudeau-pandemic-election?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3149507/canada-re-elects-justin-trudeau-pandemic-election?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Sep 2021 03:02:49 +0000 Canada’s Conservative Party has China in its election crosshairs amid the worst period of diplomatic relations in recent history – prompting a strong pushback from Beijing’s ambassador and state media, which lambasted the opposition party’s “hostile” platform for catering to “toxic” anti-China sentiment. The platform would “invite counterstrikes” if a Conservative government put its China policies into effect, the state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday. But despite the rhetoric on either... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3148622/china-weighs-canadas-election-after-conservatives-promise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3148622/china-weighs-canadas-election-after-conservatives-promise?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Sep 2021 20:30:13 +0000 The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has called for an overhaul of the country’s “archaic” access-to-information system after Canada’s tax agency took five years to provide the South China Morning Post with a secret study linking millionaire migration to high home prices in Vancouver. The long wait for the study, conducted by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) auditors in 1996, was a “damning” example of the system’s dysfunction, the association said in a statement on Wednesday, calling on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3148070/canadian-association-journalists-seeks-freedom-information?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3148070/canadian-association-journalists-seeks-freedom-information?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Sep 2021 20:11:49 +0000 Canada’s foreign ministry says it is “deeply troubled” by a lack of transparency surrounding the Chinese espionage cases against Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, after the first details of the allegations against the men emerged in state media. A report in the English-language Global Times newspaper late Wednesday said that Spavor, who was convicted of espionage by a mainland court this year, took photos and videos of secret military equipment and sent them to fellow detainee... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3147388/first-details-emerge-chinas-spy-claims-against-michael-kovrig?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3147388/first-details-emerge-chinas-spy-claims-against-michael-kovrig?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Sep 2021 22:31:20 +0000 Canada’s tax agency has released details of a secret investigation by its auditors linking millionaire migration and suspected tax cheating to high home prices in Vancouver, now one of the world’s most unaffordable cities, after taking five years to fulfil a freedom-of-information request to hand over the material. The response to the South China Morning Post’s request, lodged on August 30, 2016, arrived by mail this August 17, a delay that a freedom-of-information expert called a “tragedy” and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3146957/canada-tax-agency-reveals-secret-study-linking-home-prices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3146957/canada-tax-agency-reveals-secret-study-linking-home-prices?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Aug 2021 20:30:15 +0000 Meng Wanzhou first walked into a Canadian courtroom on December 5, 2018, an anonymous figure dressed in a dark green prison tracksuit. Four days earlier, the Huawei Technologies’ executive had been arrested at Vancouver International Airport, setting in motion a chain of events that would throw China’s relations with Canada and the United States into crisis. Her battle to avoid extradition to New York, to face trial for fraud, would become a distillation of the tectonic shifts and tensions in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145549/meng-wanzhou-told-hsbc-some-truth-was-dishonest-enough-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145549/meng-wanzhou-told-hsbc-some-truth-was-dishonest-enough-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Aug 2021 20:22:51 +0000 The US accusations that Meng Wanzhou had defrauded HSBC existed in an “evidentiary vacuum”, her lawyer told her Canadian extradition hearing on Tuesday, as he dismissed arguments that she had put the bank’s reputation or loans to Huawei Technologies at risk. Such risks were at best “remote” and “speculative”, if not zero, said lawyer Scott Fenton, as hearings in the extradition case neared their end, almost 1,000 days after Meng’s arrest at Vancouver International Airport on a US warrant. The... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145404/meng-wanzhous-extradition-lawyer-denies-she-risked-hsbcs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145404/meng-wanzhous-extradition-lawyer-denies-she-risked-hsbcs?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Aug 2021 19:46:15 +0000 The US case against Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou “turned fraud law on its head”, failing to show that she lied to HSBC, thought the bank was being put at financial risk by her statements, or had caused any actual deprivation, her lawyer argued on Monday as the final week of hearings in her extradition fight began in a Canadian court. US prosecutors want Meng to face trial in New York for allegedly defrauding HSBC by lying in a 2013 PowerPoint presentation she made about Huawei’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145263/us-charges-against-meng-wanzhou-turn-fraud-law-its-head-her?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145263/us-charges-against-meng-wanzhou-turn-fraud-law-its-head-her?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Aug 2021 19:57:31 +0000 Lawyers for the Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou called the US fraud case against her implausible, unprecedented and fatally flawed, as they argued in the final stage of her extradition hearing on Friday that she must be released. The US accusation – that Meng defrauded HSBC by lying about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran and thus put the bank at risk of breaching American sanctions on Tehran – “displays legal and factual defects rarely seen in fraud prosecutions, at least at the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145027/meng-wanzhous-extradition-lawyers-call-us-fraud-case?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3145027/meng-wanzhous-extradition-lawyers-call-us-fraud-case?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Aug 2021 20:14:52 +0000 A global diplomatic storm is swirling outside Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case in the Supreme Court of British Columbia – but inside, the Huawei Technologies executive’s fate may instead hinge partly on arcane Canadian case law, including a fraud involving a Nova Scotia car dealer almost 30 years ago. A Canadian government lawyer on Thursday cited that case and others as he tried to bolster the allegation that Meng had deceived and defrauded HSBC, even though the bank suffered no economic... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144864/meng-wanzhou-defrauded-hsbc-without-causing-loss-extradition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144864/meng-wanzhou-defrauded-hsbc-without-causing-loss-extradition?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Aug 2021 19:34:17 +0000 Meng Wanzhou’s dishonesty was “abundantly clear” and the US had successfully made a prima facie case of fraud against the Huawei Technologies executive, who should be taken into custody pending her surrender to American authorities, Canadian government lawyers told her extradition hearing. The marathon extradition battle on Wednesday finally entered the committal stage, the last courtroom process before Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes will decide whether to release Meng or recommend to... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144741/meng-wanzhous-dishonesty-abundantly-clear-and-she-should-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144741/meng-wanzhous-dishonesty-abundantly-clear-and-she-should-be?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Aug 2021 19:27:05 +0000 Former US president Donald Trump’s statements about the fraud case against Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou had been greatly exaggerated by her lawyers in an effort to have the American bid for her extradition thrown out, the Canadian justice department’s top lawyer said on Tuesday. Robert Frater, chief general counsel with the department, also told Meng’s extradition hearing that her lawyers had resorted to a “conspiracy theory” about her alleged mistreatment by Canadian police and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144594/meng-wanzhous-lawyers-exaggerated-trumps-remarks-get?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144594/meng-wanzhous-lawyers-exaggerated-trumps-remarks-get?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Aug 2021 19:42:11 +0000 Former US president Donald Trump wanted a “ransom” for Meng Wanzhou’s freedom, her lead lawyer said on Monday, as he summarised alleged abuses suffered by the Huawei Technologies Co. executive in an extradition case that began almost 1,000 days ago with her arrest at Vancouver’s airport on a US fraud warrant. The extradition case was “antithetical to Canadian values” and rule of law, Richard Peck told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The abuse of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144439/trump-wanted-ransom-meng-wanzhou-lawyer-tells-extradition-case?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144439/trump-wanted-ransom-meng-wanzhou-lawyer-tells-extradition-case?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Aug 2021 20:04:04 +0000 United States authorities were improperly trying to put evidence before the judge in Meng Wanzhou’s extradition hearing, a lawyer for the Huawei Technologies executive told the long-running proceedings in Vancouver on Friday. Meng, who is Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, is accused by the US of defrauding HSBC by lying to the bank about Huawei’s business activities in Iran, conducted via an affiliate called Skycom, thus putting the bank at risk of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144192/us-improperly-provided-evidence-judge-meng-wanzhous-canadian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144192/us-improperly-provided-evidence-judge-meng-wanzhous-canadian?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Aug 2021 20:25:41 +0000 US prosecutors pursuing Meng Wanzhou on fraud charges had acted “honourably”, and claims that they tried to mislead her extradition case in Vancouver were unsubstantiated, a Canadian government lawyer said on Thursday. The final phase of the Huawei Technologies executive’s marathon extradition hearings began on Wednesday with her lawyers arguing that the process should be halted, releasing Meng, as the only remedy for the alleged US misconduct. They contended that the Americans misled the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144019/us-acted-honourably-pursuit-meng-wanzhou-canadian-government?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3144019/us-acted-honourably-pursuit-meng-wanzhou-canadian-government?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Aug 2021 19:32:59 +0000 US authorities’ attempts to mislead in the extradition case of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou “must be denounced” by halting the entire process, thus setting her free, her lawyer said, as the final scheduled hearings in the marathon case began in a Canadian court on Wednesday. Meng’s lawyer Mona Duckett said her client’s mistreatment by the US – namely, the filing of a misleading record of the fraud case against her – could only be answered by staying the proceedings. “The only... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3143854/denounce-us-misconduct-and-set-meng-wanzhou-free-lawyer-huawei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3143854/denounce-us-misconduct-and-set-meng-wanzhou-free-lawyer-huawei?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Aug 2021 18:50:08 +0000 On May 27, 2020, a Boeing 777 sat on the tarmac of Vancouver International Airport, ready to take off on a non-stop flight to China. The jet had been chartered but was so large it could not use the south side of the terminal that is reserved for private flights. Instead, it sat on the reinforced concrete of the north side, alongside commercial airliners. It was capable of seating 361 passengers, but had been hired by Huawei Technologies (with the help of Chinese diplomats) with only one person... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3143580/trump-card-wild-card-and-meng-wanzhous-narrow-flight-path?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3143580/trump-card-wild-card-and-meng-wanzhous-narrow-flight-path?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Aug 2021 18:19:17 +0000 On April 15, a young man walked into a BMW dealership in Markham, Ontario, and signed a lease on a new X7 SUV, taking delivery of the C$140,000 (US$112,000) vehicle the next month. Within days, the luxury car was heading west on a 4,000km (2,500 miles) journey to Vancouver, British Columbia. And the chase was on – because this was no ordinary road trip. BMW said it started tracking the car via its onboard GPS after the buyer, who said his surname was Dai, failed to make his first lease payment;... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/money-wealth/article/3143082/bmw-chases-china-car-smugglers-across-canada-their-trail?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/money-wealth/article/3143082/bmw-chases-china-car-smugglers-across-canada-their-trail?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jul 2021 20:30:32 +0000 A media spotlight has been trained on Meng Wanzhou’s fight in Vancouver to avoid a US trial for more than two years, but another international extradition battle involving a once high-profile business figure has been quietly playing out in the same court for even longer. The South China Morning Post has learned that Jung Myung-soo, a former real estate tycoon behind what was one of Metro Vancouver’s biggest property developments, is wanted by his native South Korea to face multimillion-dollar... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3142631/korean-property-tycoons-marathon-extradition-fight-canada-revealed-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3142631/korean-property-tycoons-marathon-extradition-fight-canada-revealed-his?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:43:46 +0000 Huawei Technologies Co. executive Meng Wanzhou has suffered a major blow in her battle against extradition to face fraud charges in the United States, after a Canadian judge ruled on Friday that a trove of documents provided by HSBC bank could not be admitted as evidence. Meng’s lawyers had argued that the hundreds of pages of emails and other documents, which HSBC gave Meng under a legal settlement reached in Hong Kong in April, showed that US authorities had made selective, misleading and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3140592/major-blow-huaweis-meng-wanzhou-canadian-extradition-judge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3140592/major-blow-huaweis-meng-wanzhou-canadian-extradition-judge?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jul 2021 21:07:36 +0000