Criminal Executive

The Odds of Huawei’s CFO Avoiding U.S. Extradition Are Just One in 100000

Meng Wanzhou’s extradition hearings begin in earnest on Monday

By Natalie Obiko Pearson and Yuan Gao

Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou has joined Carlos Ghosn in the 1% legal club.
Those are the odds that the Chinese executive will win her bid to avoid extradition to the U.S., similar to the chances of acquittal for the auto titan-turned-fugitive in Japan. 

While Ghosn fled Japan in a big black box for Lebanon, Meng squares up to begin extradition hearings in a Vancouver court on Monday, 13 months after she was arrested on a U.S. handover request.
The hearings offer her first shot -- however slim -- at release as a Canadian judge considers whether the case meets the crucial test of double criminality: would her crime have also been a crime in Canada? 

If not, she could be discharged, according to Canada’s extradition rules.

Meng, the eldest daughter of billionaire Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, has become the highest profile target of a broader U.S. effort to contain China and its largest technology company, which is seen as a national security threat. 

The U.S. accuses her of fraud, saying she lied to HSBC Holdings Plc to trick it into conducting transactions in breach of U.S. sanctions on Iran. 

Meng, who turns 48 next month, is charged with bank and wire fraud, which carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison on conviction.
“In most extradition cases, double criminality is an easy piece of analysis,” says Brock Martland, a Vancouver-based criminal lawyer.

Meng Wanzhou leaves her home for a court appearance in Vancouver on Oct. 1, 2019.

In Meng’s case, it’s not, which may help nudge her into the 1% of defendants in Canada who have historically beaten extradition orders to the U.S.
Her defense has argued that the U.S. case is, in reality, a sanctions-violations complaint that it’s sought to “dress up” as fraud to make it easier to extradite her. 

Had Meng’s conduct taken place in Canada, the transactions by HSBC wouldn’t have violated any Canadian sanctions, they say. 

Canada’s federal prosecutors counter the underlying offense is fraud because she lied to HSBC, causing them to miscalculate Huawei’s risk as a creditor and conduct transactions it otherwise wouldn’t have.

Another potential sticking point is that Meng’s misconduct didn’t take place in the U.S. or Canada -- it rests heavily on a 2013 meeting at a Hong Kong teahouse between Meng and an HSBC banker.
“Canadian fraud laws do not have an extraterritorial reach,” said Ravi Hira, a Vancouver-based lawyer and former special prosecutor. 

“If you commit a fraud in Hong Kong, I can’t just prosecute you in Canada.”
While the double-criminality hearings are scheduled for four days, the ruling would likely come much later -- possibly in months.
Being trapped in the middle of a trade war has brought the luxury of time. 

Before her arrest, Meng traveled so frequently for the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker that she’d gone through at least seven passports in a decade. 

These days, she passes her time oil painting and pursuing an online doctorate. 

Phone calls with her father have gone from once a year to every few days.
“If a busy life has eaten away at my time, then hardship has in turn drawn it back out,” Meng wrote last month on the one-year anniversary of her arrest. 

“It was never my intention to be stuck here so long.”

Ghosn Escape
Meng would find it harder to pull a Ghosn. 

She’s under 24-hour surveillance by at least two guards at her C$13 million ($10 million) mansion. 

Her whereabouts are recorded continuously by a GPS tracker on her left ankle. 

While she’s allowed to roam a roughly 100-square-mile patch of Vancouver during the day accompanied by security, any violation -- including tampering with the device or venturing anywhere near the airport -- would automatically alert police. 

She’s posted bail of C$10 million, of which C$3 million came from a group of guarantors, some of whom pledged their homes as collateral. 

Fleeing would cost them all.
If the court finds her case fails the double-criminality test, Canada’s attorney general would have the right to appeal within 30 days. 

In theory, she could be on a plane back to China well before that, says Gary Botting, a Vancouver-based lawyer who’s been involved in hundreds of Canadian extradition cases.

Of the 798 U.S. extradition requests received since 2008, Canada has only refused or discharged eight, according to the department of justice. 

That’s a 99% chance of being handed over -- similar to the conviction rate in Japan. 

Another 40 cases were withdrawn by the U.S.
Still, that’s fractionally better than the odds of two Canadians hostages detained in China, where the conviction rate currently stands at 99.9%, according to Amnesty International.

Canadians Hostages
That’s if Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor ever make it to trial. 

The two men were thrown in jail on spying allegations just days after Meng’s arrest in December 2018. 

Last month, the Chinese government confirmed their cases were transferred to prosecutors, raising the possibility they might finally get access to lawyers.
As of last week, that hadn’t happened yet for Kovrig, according to the International Crisis Group, his employer. 

The former diplomat has been allowed one consular visit a month; in between, he’s unreachable. Communication with his family is limited to letters exchanged in those visits, according to the group.
Families of the two men aren’t speaking publicly for fear of jeopardizing their cases. 

Some sense of the conditions they’re enduring can be gleaned from past history.
Spavor, a businessman who ran tours to North Korea from his base in a border town in northeastern China, has been held since May in Dandong Detention Centre, according to the Globe and Mail.
It’s a jail familiar to another Canadian, Kevin Garratt, who was snatched along with his wife Julia by Chinese security agents in 2014, becoming pawns and hostages in an earlier high-stakes attempt by Beijing to prevent Canada from extraditing millionaire businessman Su Bin to the U.S.
Garratt spent 19 months in the forbidding compound surrounded by two-story-high cement walls. Crammed into a cell with up to 14 other inmates, he slurped meals from a communal bowl on the floor. 

If they were lucky, they got 30 minutes of hot water a day and could exercise in a small outdoor cage, he said in a December 2018 interview.

One Million March in Hong Kong Against Renditions to Mainland China

By Wong Lok-to and Qiao Long

Hong Kong witnessed its largest street protest in at least 15 years, as crowds massed against plans to allow extraditions to China, June 9, 2019.

Police fired pepper spray on several hundred protesters who gathered in Hong Kong at the tail end of a million-strong protest on Sunday against plans to allow the rendition of alleged "criminal suspects" to mainland China.
Riot police were called in after several hundred protesters besieged the city's legislature at the end of the march, which had otherwise gone peacefully, government broadcaster RTHK reported in the early hours of Monday, local time.
It said protesters who heeded a call to besiege the Legislative Council (LegCo) ended up in violent clashes with the police shortly after midnight, with officers repeatedly firing pepper spray and hitting demonstrators with batons.
The protesters blocked a street, ramming police officers with metal barriers and threw bottles at them during chaotic scenes, RTHK said, adding that a number of journalists were also injured in the melee.
The police warned protesters that all their gatherings were illegal, it said.
As an estimated 1.03 million people took to the streets of Hong Kong in a massive outpouring of public anger, the city's government reiterated its determination to get the proposed amendments to the extradition law through the legislature.
Shouting "Withdraw the evil law!" and "Oppose renditions to China!" protesters -- many of whom were wearing white to represent "light and justice" -- continued to crowd onto the city's streets after the march left Victoria Park, swelling the ranks of the demonstration in spite of police attempts to impose crowd controls at key subway stations along the route.
The number of passengers alighting at Tin Hau, North Point, Causeway Bay and Tsimshatsui stations were subject to police controls, with some trains ordered not to stop at Tin Hau at all.
A protester surnamed Wong who said he had just graduated high school said the planned amendments to the Fugitive Offenders' Ordinance would pose a huge threat to Hong Kong's way of life, which was supposed to have been protected under the "one country, two systems" framework under which the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997.
"I'm a Hong Konger born and bred, and I would have come on this march with my last breath, to speak out for Hong Kong," Wong told RFA. 

"The [proposed amendments to the] Fugitive Offenders Ordinance pose such a threat to Hong Kong."
"If passed, this law will have a huge impact on Hong Kong."

Yellow umbrellas
Marchers waved placards saying "No China Extradition!", while many in the crowd carried yellow umbrellas reminiscent of the 2014 democracy movement bearing the words: "Keep hold of freedom: oppose the evil law!"
"There are so many people here," eyewitness Wang Yan told RFA.
"They're on the sidewalks, on the overhead bridges. It's so packed that we can't move."
"I've been coming to demonstrations for many years now, and this is the biggest one I've seen."
A fellow protester surnamed Ho said he had brought his daughter on the march.
"This government won't listen to reason, so we'll have to make them listen to reason, and undergo consultation, and do this properly," Ho said. 

"They shouldn't railroad this law through [the legislature]."
"I need to know exactly why they want to amend this law: matters that have a huge impact on everyone shouldn't be decided on the say-so of one or two individuals," he said.
A protester surnamed Lee said the amendments, once implemented, will offer the ruling Chinese Communist Party a range of excuses to take Hong Kong residents across the border to face trial.
The government's planned legal amendment—which the ruling Chinese Communist Party wants implemented "urgently"—has sparked widespread fear that the city will lose its status as a separate legal jurisdiction, and that rights activists and dissidents in the city could be targeted by Beijing for actions deemed illegal across the internal border.
Judges, lawyers, opposition politicians, rights activists, business groups, and journalists have all expressed vocal opposition to the plan, which will allow China to request the extradition of an alleged suspect from Hong Kong based on the standards of evidence that currently apply in its own courts.


Legal safeguards doubted
The most likely jurisdiction to use the proposed provision is mainland China, which currently has no formal extradition treaty with Hong Kong, and Lam has tried to reassure people that legal safeguards will be used to safeguard the rights of suspects.
But lawyers say said the government's supposed safeguards are meaningless, and said they had staged a silent protest in a bid to get more people out onto the streets for Sunday's march.
Some protesters faced off with police on Sunday after the authorities refused to open up more traffic lanes to accommodate the demonstration.
"According to the notice of no objection to this protest issued by police, you are obliged to use the sidewalk, the westbound traffic lane and the east-west tram line for the march," a police officer told protesters.
However, a number of protesters leaped over the barrier, blocking oncoming traffic at Causeway Bay, which had no way to move in any direction.
By the time the march arrived outside Hong Kong's Legislative Council at around 4.00 p.m. local time, police had opened up all lanes of traffic along its route to protesters.
Seven people were arrested during the protest, one of them for assaulted a police officer, a police spokesman said on Sunday, calling on demonstrators to leave the area as soon as the march was over.
"The police would like to call on all protesters to leave the area in a peaceful and orderly manner after arriving at government headquarters," the spokesman said.
The Hong Kong government recognized the right of protesters to express their views, but refused to change the planned passage of the bill through LegCo.
"As a free, open and pluralistic society, we acknowledge and respect that people have different views on a wide range of issues," the government said in an official statement on the march.
"We note that apart from some obstructions to traffic, the march, though large, was generally peaceful and orderly," it said, but repeated its insistence that there are adequate safeguards built into the amendments to prevent politically motivated extraditions to mainland China.

Trumped-up charges feared
Citing its inability to extradite a Taiwanese man suspected of murdering his girlfriend owing to a lack of discretionary power covering jurisdictions not covered by formal extradition treaties, the government said the amendments were aimed at preventing Hong Kong from becoming a "bolt-hole" for criminals.
But journalists and rights activists say they could just as easily be extradited on a trumped-up charge, should the ruling Chinese Communist Party decide it wanted to retaliate against someone in Hong Kong, whether living there or simply visiting.
The Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) has warned that journalists have already been targeted for political reasons in China, using "baseless allegations ... including possession of drugs, smuggling, bribery and fraud."
Under the planned amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, China would be able to request the extradition of an alleged suspect based on the standards of evidence that currently apply in its own courts, the HKJA said in a statement earlier this month.
"We urge the Legislative Council to scrutinise the Bill in a calm, reasonable and respectful manner to help ensure Hong Kong remains a safe city for residents and business," the government said.
"The Second Reading debate on the Bill will resume on June 12," it said, indicating that it will stick to its original intention of passing the amendments ahead of the summer recess.
Claudia Mo, who convenes the pan-democratic camp of lawmakers in LegCo, said chief executive Carrie Lam is pushing the bill through at Beijing's behest.
"Beijing has become increasingly impatient with Hong Kong since our umbrella movement five years ago," she said. 

"[The Chinese leadership] sees us as an unruly teenager who doesn't learn to be grateful and obedient."
"The idea is to -- ultimately -- disappear Hong Kong, or at least to change it into one of the numerous Chinese cities," Mo told RTHK on Sunday. 

"Like a little boat, Hong Kong is sinking fast, but we're not taking this lying down, we have to put up a fight," she said.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the U.S. is following developments in Hong Kong very closely, and that the proposed amendments were indicative of a "serious erosion" of the city's traditional rights and freedoms, as promised under the terms of the handover.
They would also affect Hong Kong's international standing as a free port and separate jurisdiction from mainland China, the spokesman said.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio said he is also extremely concerned over the extradition plans. 

In a statement, Rubio vowed to table the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Bill in Congress, which would require a review of Hong Kong's status as a separate trading jurisdiction.

Canada’s Ambassador to China Pushed Out Over Stupid Huawei Comments

By Dan Bilefsky

The Canadian ambassador to China, John McCallum, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, earlier this month. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the ambassador’s resignation on Saturday.

MONTREAL — Canada’s ambassador to China has resigned following a series of diplomatic missteps that further complicated strained relations between the two countries.
The resignation came days after the ambassador, John McCallum, stunned seasoned diplomatic observers by saying that Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom firm Huawei who was arrested in December by Canadian authorities in Vancouver at the United States request, stood a good chance of avoiding extradition to the United States.
His public assessment of the sensitive and high profile case came under sharp criticism, including from the leader of the opposition conservative party Andrew Scheer, who said McCallum’s comments threatened to politicize the case and called for him to be fired.
“Last night, I asked for and accepted John McCallum’s resignation as Canada’s ambassador to China,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday.
McCallum backpedaled on Thursday, saying that he misspoke. 

But a day later, following a news report quoting him saying that it would be “great for Canada” if the United States dropped its request to extradite the Huawei executive, he was once again under fire.
Canada is in the middle of a struggle between China and the United States, two countries engaged in a protracted trade war.
Canada has vowed not to intervene politically in the Huawei case, which is currently pending in Canadian courts, making McCallum’s comments all the more awkward. 

China has characterized Meng’s arrest as an abuse of power by Canadian authorities.
The United States is expected to formally request the extradition of Meng from Canada in the coming days. 

It has until Jan. 30 to make the request. 

Once made, Canadian courts will decide whether she can be sent to the United States, with a final determination made by Canada’s minister of justice.
Canada has also been trying to help three of its own citizens held in China, including Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat who was working for a research organization, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, who have been detained on suspicion of “endangering national security.” 

The third Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, 36, was sentenced to death this month in China for drug smuggling.
McCallum is known to speak his mind. 

A former academic, he has held a series of senior positions in Liberal governments including as minister of defense and as Trudeau’s minister of immigration. 

He played a leading role in Canada’s decision to welcome thousands of Syrian refugees to the country.

Huawei is a spy agency of the Chinese Communist Party

Beijing's three revenge hostages for arrest of tech princess prove that smartphone maker is part of China's plan to dominate the 21st Century

• China expert Steven W. Mosher argues that Chinese tech firm Huawei is part of Communist spy apparatus
• Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou faces extradition the the US on charges of bank fraud and sanction violatons
• China has furiously retaliated by detaining three Canadians on vague charges 

By KEITH GRIFFITH 

Beijing's furious response to the arrest of a tech 'princess' who is a top executive at Huawei reveals that the company is part and parcel of China's spying apparatus, an expert has argued.
'Huawei is much more than an innocent manufacturer of smartphones. It is a spy agency of the Chinese Communist Party,' wrote China expert Steven W. Mosher in a column on Saturday for the New York Post.
Mosher points out that since the December 1 arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada, where she faces extradition to the U.S. on bank fraud and international sanction violation charges, China has rounded up at least three Canadian 'revenge hostages'.
'Beijing hints that the hostage count may grow if Meng is not freed and fast,' writes Mosher. 

'Even for a thuggish regime like China's, this kind of action is almost unprecedented.'

Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou as she exits the court registry following the bail hearing at British Columbia Superior Courts in Vancouver, British Columbia on December 11

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping is seen on a state visit to Portugal earlier this month. Experts argue that 'private' tech firm Huawei is actually an arm of China's spy apparatus

Mosher, the author of Bully of Asia: Why China's Dream is the New Threat to World Order, says the dramatic response adds to evidence that Huawei, the second largest smartphone maker in the world after Samsung, is no simple private competitor to other tech firms around the world.
Huawei has been nourished by China's ruling Communist Party and military through low-interest loans and protected access to the domestic market, Mosher writes.
China has also repeatedly declared that all Chinese companies, private or not, must assist the government with gathering intelligence.
Under Chinese law, 'all organizations and citizens... must support, assist with, and collaborate in national intelligence work, and guard the national intelligence work secrets they are privy to.'
All of which has led the U.S. and its allies to view Huawei with extreme skepticism as the company attempts to spearhead the roll out of 5G network technology worldwide, potentially giving the Chinese government access to and control over information networks.
Huawei has already been labeled a national security threat by U.S. officials, who urged allies who host American military bases to ban the use of Huawei products in their communications infrastructure.
'Huawei stands in the same relationship to the Chinese Communist Party as German steelmaker Alfried Krupp did to Germany's National Socialists in the days leading up to WWII,' writes Mosher.
German arms maker Krupp effectively became a wing of the Nazi party during the war, Mosher notes.
Adding to the drama of Meng's arrest is the fact that she is no simple executive - she is the daughter of Huawei founder and president Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in the People's Liberation Army and a Communist Party elite.

Meng (above) is the daughter of Huawei's founder and president

Meng was arrested in Vancouver on an American warrant accusing her of a scheme to sell U.S. equipment to Iran in violation of sanctions law, and of falsifying bank records to cover up the transactions.
Lawyers for Meng have argued that she broke no U.S. or Canadian laws, and she is currently free in Canada on bail of C$10 million.
Since her arrest, China has arrested at least three Canadian citizens: former diplomat Michael Kovrig, consultant Michael Spavor and most recently teacher Sarah McIver.
Kovrig and Spavor were detained on December 10 and accused of engaging in activities that 'endanger China's national security'.
McIver's detention was confirmed on Thursday, when Beijing confirmed that it had arrested the Alberta native for 'working illegally' in the country.
Canadian officials said that McIver's case appeared to be more routine and unrelated to the earlier arrests.
Family friends of the woman said she had communicated that she would be held for 10 days and then returned to Canada.

Rogue Company

Huawei CFO seeks bail on "health" concerns; Canada wants her in jail

By Anna Mehler Paperny, Ben Blanchard

TORONTO/BEIJING -- The CFO of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd argued that she should be released on bail while awaiting an extradition hearing, citing her longstanding ties to Canada, properties she owns in Vancouver and fears for her health while incarcerated, court documents showed on Sunday.

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is fighting to be released on bail after she was arrested on Dec. 1 in Vancouver at the request of the United States. 

She is also fighting the extradition request, and China has protested her arrest to U.S. and Canadian officials.
Meng, 46, faces U.S. accusations that she misled multinational banks about Huawei’s control of a company operating in Iran. 

This deception put the banks at risk of violating U.S. sanctions and incurring severe penalties, according to court documents seen by Reuters. 

U.S. officials allege that Huawei was trying to use the banks to move money out of Iran.

In a sworn affidavit, Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, said she is innocent and will contest the allegations at trial in the United States if she is surrendered there.
Meng said she was taken to a hospital for treatment for hypertension after being detained. 

She cited hypertension in a bail application seeking her release pending an extradition hearing. 

She also noted that she owns two homes in Vancouver worth millions of dollars each.

BACK IN THE COURT
Her family assured the court she would remain in Vancouver if she was granted bail, according to the court documents. 

Her husband said he plans to bring the couple’s daughter to Vancouver to attend school during the proceedings. 

Meng will be back in the court for a bail hearing on Monday.
Huawei, the world’s biggest supplier of telecoms network equipment and second biggest smartphone seller, did not offer an immediate comment on the court documents. 

Earlier on Sunday, China’s foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador to lodge a “strong protest” over the arrest, and said the United States should withdraw its arrest warrant.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told U.S. ambassador Terry Branstad the United States had made an “unreasonable demand” on Canada to detain Meng while she was passing through Vancouver, China’s Foreign Ministry said.

On Saturday, Le warned the Canadian ambassador there would be severe consequences if it did not immediately release Meng. 

There was no immediate reaction from Canada. 

On Friday, the country’s ambassador in Beijing has assured the Chinese consular access will be provided to Meng.

THE CASE
The United States has been looking since at least 2016 into whether Huawei shipped U.S.-origin products to Iran and other countries in violation of U.S. export and sanctions laws, Reuters reported in April.
The U.S. case against Meng involves Skycom Tech Co. Ltd, which Huawei has described as one of its “major local partners” in Iran. 

Huawei used Skycom’s Tehran office to provide mobile network equipment to several major telecommunications companies in Iran.
In December 2012, Reuters reported that documents showed Skycom had tried to sell embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment in 2010 to Iran’s largest mobile-phone operator. 

Reuters later reported that Skycom had much closer ties to Huawei and Meng than previously known.
In Canadian court papers made public on Friday, an investigation by U.S. authorities found Huawei operated Skycom as an “unofficial subsidiary” to conduct business in Iran.
Meng and other Huawei representatives misled financial institutions about Huawei’s control of Skycom, so the Chinese company could gain access to the international banking system. 

As a result, an unidentified financial institution cleared more than $100 million worth of transactions related to Skycom through the U.S. between 2010 and 2014, the court papers said.
On Thursday, Reuters identified HSBC Holdings Plc as one of the banks involved in the Meng case and, citing sources, reported that the probe included possible bank fraud.
Companies are barred from using the U.S. financial system to funnel goods and services to sanctioned entities.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said on Sunday he would “100 percent absolutely” introduce a measure in the new Congress that would ban Chinese telecom companies from doing business in the United States.
“We have to understand Chinese companies are not like American companies. OK. We can’t even get Apple to crack an iPhone for us in a terrorist investigation,” he told CBS “Face the Nation.”
“When the Chinese ask a telecom company, we want you to turn over all the data you’ve gathered in the country you’re operating in, they will do it. No court order. Nothing like that. They will just do it. They have to. We need to understand that.”
Rubio was a strong critic of China’s ZTE Corp, which pleaded guilty in 2017 to violating U.S. laws that restrict the sale of American-made technology to Iran.

Pariah Company

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou arrested in Canada, faces extradition to United States
By Julia Horowitz

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei

New York -- The chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada. 

She faces extradition to the United States.

Meng Wanzhou, also known as Sabrina Meng and Cathy Meng, was apprehended in Vancouver on December 1, according to Canadian Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod. 

In addition to her role as CFO, Meng serves as deputy chairwoman of Huawei's board. 

She's the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.
Meng "is sought for extradition by the United States, and a bail hearing has been set for Friday," McLeod said in a statement, which was first reported by The Globe and Mail.
McLeod said the Canadian Justice Department can't share details of the case. 

Meng was granted a publication ban after a judge agreed to bar both police and prosecutors from releasing information about the case.
A Huawei spokesperson said Meng was detained by Canadian authorities on behalf of the United States when she was transferring flights in Canada. 

Huawei said she faces unspecified charges in the Eastern District of New York. 

The Wall Street Journal reported in April that the US Justice Department was investigating whether Huawei violated US sanctions on Iran.

The US Justice Department declined to comment Wednesday.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday called for Meng to be released and urged the United States and Canada to explain why she had been detained.
The Chinese company, which sells smartphones and telecommunications equipment around the world, has been facing increased scrutiny in the United States and other countries, where officials have warned of national security risks from using Huawei products. 

The United States is concerned that the Chinese government is using Huawei's networking technology to spy on Americans.
Huawei's 5G ambitions suffer another big setback

Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, said Americans are grateful to Canadian authorities for arresting Meng.
"Chinese aggression is explicitly state-sponsored and sometimes it's laundered through many of Beijing's so-called 'private' sector entities that are in bed with Xi's communist party," he said.
Senator Chris Van Hollen — a Democrat from Maryland — said Chinese telecommunications companies represent a fundamental risk to American national security.
"We need a comprehensive plan to hold the Chinese and their state-sponsored entities accountable for gross violations of the law and threats to our security," he said.
The Pentagon in May ordered stores on American military bases to stop selling smartphones made by Huawei and Chinese rival ZTE. 

And in February, top officials from the CIA, NSA, FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency told a Senate committee that those firms' smartphones posed a security threat to American customers.
New Zealand prevents mobile carrier from buying Huawei 5G tech over security fears

The Trump administration launched an extraordinary campaign, urging America's allies to stop using Huawei telecommunications equipment because the Chinese company poses a security threat, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Over the past several weeks, New Zealand and Australia have prevented telecommunications companies from using Huawei equipment for their 5G mobile networks.
UK telecom company BT (BT) said Wednesday that it would not buy equipment from the Chinese tech company for the core of its next generation wireless network. 

The company also said it would remove existing Huawei technology from the heart of its 4G network within two years.
China's ZTE also faced accusations of illegal dealings with Iran. 

In April, the United States blocked ZTE from buying US parts because ZTE had lied to US officials about punishing employees who violated US sanctions against North Korea and Iran. 

But the Trump administration lifted the export ban on ZTE in July after striking a deal with the company.

Chinese spy arrested in Belgium and extradited to US on charges of stealing aviation secrets

By Katie Benner

Yanjun Xu, Chinese intelligence official, was charged with espionage and extradited from Belgium to the United States, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — A Chinese intelligence official was arrested in Belgium and extradited to the United States to face espionage charges, Justice Department officials said on Wednesday, a major escalation of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on Chinese spying.
The extradition on Tuesday of the officer, Yanjun Xu, a deputy division director in China’s main spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, is the first time that a Chinese intelligence official has been brought to the United States to be prosecuted and tried in open court. 

Law enforcement officials said that Xu tried to steal trade secrets from companies including GE Aviation outside Cincinnati, in Evendale, Ohio, one of the world’s top jet engine suppliers for commercial and military aircraft.
A 16-page indictment details what appears to be a dramatic international sting operation to lure Xu to what he believed was a meeting in Belgium to obtain proprietary information about jet fan blade designs from a GE Aviation employee, only to be met by Belgian authorities and put on a plane to the United States.
China has for years used spycraft and cyberattacks to steal American corporate, academic and military information to bolster its growing economic power and political influence. 

But apprehending an accused Chinese spy — all others charged by the United States government are still at large — is an extraordinary development and a sign of the Trump administration’s continued crackdown on the Chinese theft of trade secrets.
The administration also outlined on Wednesday new restrictions on foreign investment aimed at keeping China from gaining access to American companies.
The arrest of Xu “shows that federal law enforcement authorities can not only detect and disrupt such espionage, but can also catch its perpetrators,” Benjamin C. Glassman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said in a statement.
The coming trial, in federal court in Cincinnati, could further expose China’s methods for stealing trade secrets and embarrass officials in Beijing — part of what current and former administration officials said was a long-term strategy to make stealing secrets costly and shameful for China. 

Federal prosecutors will have to present additional evidence to prove their case, which could include intercepted communications between government officials or even testimony from cooperating witnesses.
“If you can make it less expensive in terms of money and reputation to instead invest in R&D, the country’s behavior can and will change,” said John Carlin, the former head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, referring to research and development.

The indictment outlines China’s courting of the GE Aviation employee starting in March 2017. 

The company, a subsidiary of General Electric, was a ripe target because it builds airplane and helicopter engines for the Pentagon.
An individual identified as an unindicted co-conspirator invited the GE Aviation employee on an all-expense trip to China to meet with scientists at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. 

Once there, the employee was introduced to Xu, who continued to be in touch by email after the trip.
In January, Xu invited the employee back to China and told him that he should bring information about GE Aviation’s “system specification, design process.” 

Over the next two months, Xu asked the employee for more details, including what the indictment said was proprietary information about fan blade design.
Xu and the GE Aviation employee discussed increasingly specific pieces of data that Xu wanted, and the employee even sent Xu a file directory of documents on the employee’s company-issued laptop.
The two never met again in China, but set up a meeting in Belgium for the employee to pass more secrets to Xu. 

In preparation for the employee’s trip to Europe, Xu asked the employee if he would use an external thumb drive to transfer information from the employee’s work computer when they met in person.
It is unclear from the indictment if the employee at this point was cooperating with the F.B.I. as part of the sting operation, and it is unclear if the employee ever traveled to Belgium. 

On Wednesday, the Justice Department praised GE Aviation for its cooperation in the investigation and internal controls that the department said “protected GE Aviation’s proprietary information.’’
Xu was arrested on April 1 in Belgium and remained in custody there until Tuesday. 

He is now being held in Cincinnati.
Employees of large American corporations traveling to countries like China are often targets for information theft because their devices can be hacked remotely and because they can speak too revealingly of their work while being wined and dined, said Joseph S. Campbell, the former head of the F.B.I.’s criminal investigative division who is now a director at Navigant Consulting.
“Employees who think they’re sharing unimportant information don’t realize that they’re adding to a broad matrix of knowledge,’’ Mr. Campbell said. 

“Even with unclassified information, China can put together a fuller picture of a company’s sensitive information.”
The government indictment against Xu leaves open the possibility that the government investigation is continuing. 

The document says that an unindicted co-conspirator referred to as CF brokered the meeting between Xu and the GE Aviation employee; it mentions that Xu was communicating with other Ministry of State Security agents about the spy operation.
The Justice Department is pursuing other thefts of trade secrets for prosecution, said John C. Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. 

Together, he said, they show that China has a policy of developing its economy to the detriment of the United States.
“This case is not an isolated incident,” Mr. Demers said. 

“It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at American expense. We cannot tolerate a nation’s stealing our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower.”
China has also been targeting General Electric’s turbine technology. 

The F.B.I. arrested in August a dual citizen of the United States and China who worked at General Electric, charging him with stealing the company’s technology for the purpose of helping Chinese companies.