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    Case to extradite Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to US resumes

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    The legal battle between Washington and Huawei resumes this week when a Canada-based senior executive at the Chinese state-backed telecommunications firm reappears in a Vancouver court on Monday claiming the effort to extradite her to the US should be thrown out.Huawei will claim an abuse of process, arguing the US government has provided Canadian authorities with partial and misleading evidence in an effort to show finance officer Meng Wanzhou tried to circumvent US sanctions on Iran 10 years ago.Meng, the daughter of the company’s founder, will appear in court on Monday for the first time in months after the Canadian government ordered her to remain in Vancouver until her extradition is settled.The Chinese government has condemned the US extradition drive as nakedly political. Huawei’s drawn out legal fight aims to show the US government it has no hope of securing Weng’s extradition for many years, and increase political pressure on the Canadian government to acknowledge its justice system is being used as part of Donald Trump’s trade battle with Beijing. The US government allege Meng breached US sanctions by covertly trading with Iran using a Huawei front company Skycom.Two Canadian citizens – Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur – have been arrested in China in what is seen as a tit for tat reprisal. It is unlikely the pair will be released unless Canada takes the unusual step of intervening in the extradition.Lovring’s wife has called for Meng’s release. Chinese diplomats in Canada have also warned relations between the two countries are worsening due to the episode.In the new court papers, Meng’s defence team will argue that the US government committed a fraud by providing Canada with a misleading record of the case against her when they sought her arrest on fraud and conspiracy charges in Vancouver in December 2018.The US government claims the 48-year-old finance officer misled an HSBC executive in August 2013 about Huawei’s relationship with a Skycom subsidiary accused of violating American economic sanctions against Iran.According to prosecutors, HSBC rested on her false assurances to continue financing Huawei, using dollar transaction, placing the bank at risk of prosecution and fines by the US.Court papers submitted by Meng’s lawyers claim the US government only provided Canadian authorities with 4 of the 16 slides used by her at a powerpoint presentation to reassure HSBC. The full set of slides, her lawyers claim, show she told HSBC bankers about Huawei controlling the Skycom bank account in Iran.As a result HSBC had the information it needed to assess the risk of financing Huawei.The allegation is one of three lines of attack the Huawei chief financial officer’s lawyers plan to pursue in the coming months to convince the British Columbia Supreme Court justice overseeing the case that Meng’s rights have been violated.Meng was detained in December 2018 after flying to Vancouver from Hong Kong en route to a business conference in Latin America. She will also claim after she was arrested at Vancouver airport she was subject to a three-hour interrogation without lawyers.The preliminary hearings today come ahead of a fuller hearing in February next year and will determine the legal defences that Meng’s lawyers will be entitled to mount to resist her extradition. More

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      'Well done': Mike Pompeo congratulates UK and Dominic Raab on Huawei decision – video

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      The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has congratulated the UK on its decision to ban Huawei and opening an invitation to Hongkongers after having a ‘very productive’ conversation with the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab.
      The pair held a press conference after discussing Hong Kong, Russia and China during lunch on Tuesday
      Government rejects ISC’s call for inquiry into Russian interference in Brexit referendum – live news
      US threatens sanctions against Huawei employees and business partners

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      Pressure from Trump led to 5G ban, Britain tells Huawei

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      The British government privately told the Chinese technology giant Huawei that it was being banned from Britain’s 5G telecoms network partly for “geopolitical” reasons following huge pressure from President Donald Trump, the Observer has learned.In the days leading up to the controversial announcement on Tuesday last week, intensive discussions were held and confidential communications exchanged between the government and Whitehall officials on one side and Huawei executives on the other.As part of the high-level behind-the-scenes contacts, Huawei was told that geopolitics had played a part, and was given the impression that it was possible the decision could be revisited in future, perhaps if Trump failed to win a second term and the anti-China stance in Washington eased.Senior Huawei executives have gone public since Tuesday’s decision saying that they hope the British government will rethink, apparently encouraged by the results of back-channel contacts.The government’s private admissions are out of kilter with public statements last week by ministers, who said Huawei had been banned because of new security concerns raised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ.In the Commons, Oliver Dowden, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, said new sanctions forbidding the sale of US-produced components to Huawei – meaning the Chinese company will have to source them from elsewhere – had changed the balance of security risk.“The new US measures restrict Huawei’s ability to produce important products using US technology or software,” he said. “The National Cyber Security Centre has reviewed the consequences of the US’s actions …“The NCSC has now reported to ministers that they have significantly changed their security assessment of Huawei’s presence in the UK 5G network. Given the uncertainty this creates around Huawei’s supply chain, the UK can no longer be confident it will be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G equipment affected by the change in the US foreign direct product rules.” More

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      Cyber security review may spell end for Huawei 5G deal

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      Government set for climbdown after US bans on Chinese telecoms group and growing resistance from backbenchers The National Cyber Security Agency in the UK is expected to conclude that US sanctions against Huawei will make it impossible to use the Chinese company’s technology as planned for 5G networks. The emergency review, announced on Sunday, is […] More