US ambassador summoned in Beijing over arrest of top Huawei executive

China has summoned the ambassador of the United States in Beijing to express its protest against the “extremely bad” arrest of a top executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei in Canada, calling on Washington to drop its extradition request.

Meng Wanzhou, 46, the deputy chairwoman of the board and chief financial officer (CFO) of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, was arrested during a stopover at Vancouver airport on a US extradition request, on December 1.

Canadian authorities, who announced the arrest on Wednesday, said they nabbed Meng over his alleged violation of the US sanctions against Iran, without making public the details of the charges.

The arrest of Meng, who is also the daughter of the company's founder Ren Zhengfei, has already infuriated China, threatening to disrupt a trade war truce between Beijing and Washington.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng had summoned Terry Branstad one day after Le called in Canadian envoy John McCallum to voice China's discontent.

“Le Yucheng pointed out that the US side has seriously violated the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens, and the nature of the violation is extremely bad,” the statement further read.

It also said that Beijing “firmly” opposed the arrest and strongly urged Washington to “attach great importance to China's solemn and just position.”

Furthermore, China urged the US to “take immediate measures to correct wrong practices, and revoke the arrest warrant against the Chinese citizen.”

PressTV-Huawei official faces US charges linked to Iran

The US accuses senior Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou of breaching sanctions against Iran, a Canadian court hearing says.

A Canadian prosecutor said on Friday that Meng covered up her company’s purported links to a firm that tried to sell equipment to Iran, which is under the US sanctions, adding that she has been accused of “conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions.”

US President Donald Trump withdrew his country in May from the multilateral nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and decided to reimpose unilateral sanctions against Tehran.

If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, with a maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge.

Beijing has already called on both Washington and Ottawa to immediately clarify the reasons behind Meng’s detention and release her without delay.

Meng’s shocking arrest occurred on the same day Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the G20 summit in Argentina, where they reached an agreement to temporarily halt a trade war.

The detention has now put at stake the fragile truce that was made after months of difficult negotiations over import tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of products.

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