SOURCE / ECONOMY
Huawei CFO should be set free, helping China-Canada relations back to normalcy: ambassador
Published: Feb 01, 2021 03:03 PM

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves the British Columbia Supreme Court with her security team, in Vancouver, Canada, on Tuesday. A  Canadian police officer refused to testify at Meng's latest extradition hearing, which sparked more suspicions, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday noted the essence of the case became much clearer -- politics.



China has again urged Canadian government to make a correct decision on Huawei's Meng Wanzhou and set her free at an earlier stage, which will help unleash better cooperation between the two economies, and get bilateral relations back on normal track. 

The remarks, made by China's ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu during an online forum with Chinese media in Canada Sunday, also came as a Canada court judge rejected Meng's request for looser bail terms.

"The current bail conditions are the minimum required to mitigate Ms. Meng's risk of flight to an acceptable level," British Columbia Supreme Court Justice William Ehrcke said on Friday, local media reported.

Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei, has been placed under house arrest in Vancouver, since Canadian police detained her while in transit in December 2018. 

There is no history feud between China and Canada, Cong said, and the two economies are highly complementary in nature, which have huge potential for further cooperation and improvement. However, very regrettably, due to some "well publicized reasons," China-Canada relations are now facing serious difficulties, Cong said.

"It is hoped that Canada will make the correct decision as soon as possible, correct its mistakes, resolve the outstanding issues between the two countries, immediately releasing Meng and allowing her to return to China safely at an early date, thus creating conditions for China-Canada relations to get back on normal track and further unleash two countries' economic growth potential," Cong said.

Meng will appear in Canadian court on March 1 for the last stage of her extradition hearings, which are scheduled to finish in May, according to a Reuters report.

Meng's lawyers are introducing a fourth tranche of their legal argument alleging Meng was subjected to an abuse-of-process and should be freed. The attorneys said Canada would be "violating established international law" if it agrees to send the Huawei top executive to the US, the Global Times has learned.