NEW YORK — Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou will argue that U.S. prosecutors have provided a litany of misstatements and misleading information to the Canadian authorities when the extradition trial of Huawei’s chief financial officer reaches its final stretch on Wednesday.
After over two years of legal battles, Meng is due back in court in Vancouver for a last round of hearings, which could continue until Aug. 20. The trial comes against a backdrop of intense pressure from China on the U.S. to drop the case, which it says is politically motivated.
Lawyers for Meng will argue that U.S. prosecutors are abusing the extradition process and acting “without authority under international law,” according to previous court filings.
The U.S. is seeking the extradition of Meng, the oldest daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, to face charges of misleading HSBC over the nature of her company’s ties to its Iranian subsidiary Skycom, causing the bank to unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in 2018 and has been under house arrest with a tracking bracelet around her ankle at one of her million-dollar mansions since then.
As recently as last week, Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, requested the U.S. to “change course and correct its mistakes.” Speaking at a news conference, he appended the Meng case to a list of grievances, calling on Washington to “unconditionally revoke visa restrictions on members of the Communist Party of China and their family members, stop suppressing Chinese companies, stop harassing Chinese students overseas, stop attacking the Confucius Institute, remove the registration of Chinese media as foreign agents or foreign missions, and drop the extradition of Meng Wanzhou and so on.”
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge will have to decide whether Meng is to be committed for extradition or discharged. A decision could be reached by the end of this year.
Wednesday’s hearing is set to reprise legal arguments between the two sides, including Meng’s defense that the U.S. has no business bringing a case over communications between the company executive and a foreign bank.
Meng, “a Chinese national, gave a presentation, drafted in China, to an executive of a non-U.S. bank, HSBC, at a meeting in Hong Kong. The purported connection between the [Meng’s] conduct and [the U.S.] is wholly insufficient and artificial,” Meng’s lawyers said in a December submission.
The case started amid the U.S.-China trade war during the administration of former President Donald Trump. Huawei was among the Chinese tech companies banned from doing business with American companies due to national security concerns.
The case has also contributed to tension between Canada and China. It has been linked to the arrests of two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in Beijing over allegations of espionage soon after Meng’s arrest.
Canadian law requires “double criminality” as the premise for granting an extradition request, which means the allegations need to be considered crimes in both countries. The Canadian court ruled against Meng on that point last year and prompted the trial to run its course.
Last month, Meng’s lawyers failed in a bid to introduce into evidence a trove of HSBC emails, granted through legal battle in Hong Kong, that they said prove senior HSBC employees knew about the connection between Huawei and Skycom.
Although the new U.S. administration has not made any statement on Meng’s extradition case, President Joe Biden last week nominated U.S. prosecutor Thea Kendler, an attorney on the criminal case against Huawei and Meng, to be the assistant secretary for export administration at the Commerce Department, which will oversee controls on exports to China, according to Reuters.