China’s Foreign Ministry urged Canada to immediately release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, saying her arrest was an abuse of legal procedures.
China’s ties with Canada have turned frosty since the arrest of Meng, the chief financial officer and “heiress” of Huawei.
China has warned of unspecified consequences unless Meng was released, and has detained Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on unpaid leave from the embassy in Beijing, and Michael Spavor, a Canadian consultant, on suspicion of endangering state security.
Beijing has not drawn a direct link between the detentions and the arrest of Meng, wanted by U.S. authorities for allegedly misleading multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions. Western diplomats said the cases are a tit-for-tat reprisal.
