China is pushing Canada to “reflect on its mistakes” and release Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is currently detained in Vancouver.
After Canada appointed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s economic adviser Dominic Barton as Canada’s ambassador to China, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said he hoped the appointment would benefit relations.
Geng added that the Canada-China relations have been “facing serious difficulties,” the Associated Press reported.
Trudeau had fired John McCallum, Canada’s former envoy to China, after he suggested it would be “great” if the U.S. dropped Meng’s extradition request.
Canada and China have faced a tense relationship since December after Vancouver authorities arrested Meng. The U.S. has charged her, Huawei, and subsidiary Skycom 13 counts of bank and wire fraud charges. These accusations still have to be proven in court. Huawei maintains that it has not committed any crimes and opposes the allegations.
Her extradition case could likely end in October 2020.
Meanwhile, as trade relations are trying to get resolved between the U.S. and China, U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that the topic of blacklisting Huawei will not be discussed with China.
“It’s a national security concern,” Trump said to reporters on September 4th, according to Reuters. “Huawei is a big concern of our military, of our intelligence agencies, and we are not doing business with Huawei.”
Trump also indicated that the country will “see what happens with respect to China,” most likely referring to trade relations.
“But Huawei has not been a player that we want to discuss, [that] we want to talk about right now,” he said.
These comments do not make it clear if Trump is again back-tracking to statements he has said before concerning the ban, nor does it indicate whether he is open to talking about trade with China.
Reuters reported that the president in the past has been open to the idea of speaking with China’s President Xi Jinping and has also indicated he would talk about Huawei.
In May, the Trump placed Huawei on an Entity List that banned the firm from working with any U.S.-based company. The ban was slightly lifted in June, allowing companies to apply for licences so long as the work isn’t a national security threat.
Source: The Associated Press, Reuters