Justice, Democracy and Freedom: What Does It Look Like for Meng Wanzhou?

Whether its smearing Huawei’s reputation for its refusal to play nice with the NSA’s demands to install backdoor capability in its hardware and software or making a geopolitical mockery of the justice and integrity in the Canadian judicial system handling Meng Wanzhou’s case, the long arm of U.S. geopolitical bullying has accomplished one thing; it leaves Meng Wanzhou’s personal life and liberty hanging in the balance. Meanwhile, as this international incident occurred on Canadian soil, we have to also consider the degree to which Canada has sold its soul down the river as a manipulated puppet of U.S. strong arm tactics. The history tell us this is a legitimate and justified question, that the integrity of Canada’s judicial system hangs in the balance.

In order to fully appreciate the issues, we shall consider the wider historical background. The United States’ desire to continue encroaching on the world’s privacy with its NSA requirement to tech vendors that they install and grant the ability to spy on the world didn’t matter as much a few years earlier to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She found herself only an embarrassed victim of eavesdropping on her cellphone, a mild offense in comparison to Ms. Meng’s now over two year detention in Canada. 

Even a casual yet broader glance at the 70 year historical record since WWII reveals a cavalcade of U.S. imperialism, hegemony and sanctions, whether it might be targeting of countries for regime change or targeting of companies to strong arm the competition. Every step of the way, the powers in charge insist its all in the name of upholding justice, freedom and democracy while continuously violating those very same values all along the way. We have seen it happen time and time again in the evident historical record which is irrefutable. 

Former President Trump's remarks on his willingness to intervene in the Meng Wanzhou case have made it clear Ms. Meng is being used as a bargaining chip in China/US trade negotiations. The extradition proceedings in Canada are being used, dragged out would be more accurate, to achieve a geopolitical purpose. Even since her arrest over two years earlier, there has been subsequent interference further hindering the case proceedings and raising the question of integrity in the Canadian judicial system. Ms. Meng’s defenders are crying foul every step of the way as they watch what they believe is an overt indignity to fairness, integrity, and justice. 

This broader background paints a reasonably damning and questionable picture yet right now its mostly on Canada; its role in this drama which many legitimately regard as peppered with egregious conflicts and falsities. We know there was an active arrest warrant in place. And yet no matter how you consider the facts, they intentionally deceived Ms. Meng every step of the way until they sprung her arrest upon her several hours later. 

Imagine with me for a moment landing on a flight in Canada while there is a warrant out for your arrest. Would you be stopped and arrested as you passed through customs or even when you’ve just stepped off the plane? Of course. That is exactly what the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) would do as the law requires and anyone would expect. But with Ms. Meng, they did no such thing; instead the officers never told her she was under arrest, they just escorted her to the CBSA (Canadian Border Service Agency) to have a talk and then forced to turn over her laptop and passwords. 

More recently, on Tuesday, March 16th, a Canadian judge rejected a request by lawyers for Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou to have additional evidence accepted in her extradition case. Meng's lawyers had wanted to include an affidavit from a Huawei accountant as evidence that they said would shed light on the Chinese technology giant's financial practices and help prove Meng's innocence as she fights extradition from Canada on charges of bank fraud in the United States. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court rejected the affidavit, the third such request made by Meng's legal team, stating the evidence "is not relevant" to the extradition hearing. Much of the team's other requests were similarly rejected.

Meng's legal team argued last week that misconduct by police and border officials during Meng's arrest and interrogation, including an alleged delay in her detainment by police, violated her rights and that her devices were seized without proper authority and her device pass codes improperly obtained. Government defense attorney Frater said the arrest was carried out in a reasonable amount of time that took into consideration the responsibilities of the Canadian Border Services Agency. He said the agency had the authority to obtain her pass codes and that they were passed on to Canadian police by mistake. Conveniently “by mistake”. 

In case some of this may still sound to skeptical readers like Chinese propaganda, please consider two well known cases to quell your doubts, revealing the historical record of similar instances in which the U.S. unapologetically engages in such aggressive bullying against companies like Japan’s Toshiba and France’s Alstom. The pattern is unmistakable and tells any intelligent viewer it has little to do with justice and everything to do with competition and power. 

Yet, in digging deeper, we learn that Canada seems intent on competing judicially with the United States on who can legislate the more compromised set of laws on the books. Canada’s Examination of Discovery rules with respect to evidence are subject to its infamous Section 5 Exclusions tantamount to allowing the prosecution to legally hide pretty much any behind the scenes collaboration they like. Justice in the land of the free means if the U.S. says it, well then it is simply presumed by the Canadian judicial system as reasonable evidence even without being presented with the evidence proving it so.   

Normally in my article, I like to attempt a bit of prose and philosophy, but the issues here are so egregiously clear all I have is a bad taste in my mouth urging me to right egregious wrongs rather than quote Shakespeare or Bertrand Russell on the redemption found in life’s tragic folly.

To what degree has Canada been caught between a rock and a hard place deserving some sympathy and understanding? I think not. The historical record helps us to understand how and why Canada would so willingly line up behind this scandal, standing in stark contrast to how ASEAN countries have rebuffed a variety of U.S. advances. Across multiple published media stories, note the similarities when Alstom executive Frederic Pierucci was arrested by the FBI in 2013 on charges of bribery in Indonesia. An incident which occurred in parallel timing to American GE’s interest in Alstom’s energy business. 

In his book, American Trap, Pierucci argued that “the DOJ had become the law enforcement arm of the U.S.' economic ambition, undermining the power of foreign companies through the launching of extrajudicial probes.” 

As well, in just a few short weeks heading into the end of 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s last minute efforts to gain support for the U.S. of ASEAN countries were roundly rejected by member country ministers while both the long awaited RCEP agreement and EU-China CAI agreement were confirmed, thus sending a clear message to Washington that their bullying tactics are rejected, that multilateralism is the way forward in a world glad to be rid of the populist Trump-Pompeo tag team. 

Moving for a moment to the European continent, even Germany’s top international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle also reported on the CAI between China and Europe which has substantial focus on areas clearly at the center of Huawei’s expertise and capability. Why even talk about the EU? Because the US is holding threat over their heads and everyone knows the message being delivered; cooperate with China at the risk of annoying us and don’t forget what happened to Pierucci and our current hold on Ms. Meng sitting up in Canada. 

Meng Wanzhou sits and Canada kowtows to its master. None less than the attacks on Huawei’s products and services simultaneous with the ongoing detention of Meng Wanzhou serves as a perfect example of these legal manipulations intended to contain the uncontainable, a rising China and a highly competent Huawei. 

While Huawei has suffered as a result of U.S. decisions to harm its business and arrest its CFO, in facing these profound shifts in its plans and strategies, Huawei continues to emerge stronger, actually being forced to accelerate its pace of innovations and developments which are ultimately strengthening the company and in contrast to the intended outcome, elevating its brand and reputation across the world while simultaneously shining a light on and hastening the end of the absurd tale of CFO Meng Wanzhou’s detainment in Canada. The final outcome of her case is set to wrap up in May 2021. 

These days, the barrage of news and speed of the news cycle is overwhelming and exhausting. However, it only takes a couple of deep breaths to pause and notice that the obvious direction of well-formed future global cooperation contravenes the maelstrom of headline chaos and power found in the headlines and swirling around in the heads of delusional cold war U.S. foreign policy makers and their puppet states like Canada.

Unfortunately, in the case of Meng Wanzhou, recent developments continue to disappoint. The recent affidavit as further evidence of her innocence won’t be allowed and much of her legal team's other requests were similarly rejected.

Nation’s policy makers and leaders across the world whether Canada, the European continent, Global South or Indo-Pacific region know beyond a shadow of a doubt that despite the variety of peripheral issues scattered across the geopolitical horizon including Ms Meng’s case, China is now the world’s leading stable, growing and successful economic power. They also know that Huawei is far ahead of the pack in terms of its capabilities to make the future world a better place including its lead in 5G, cloud services, data centers and much more as were on display during the March 2021 Industrial Digital Transformation Conference event. 

In short, these policy makers and leaders have made clear their willingness to move forward together across the globe with a capable, rising China and with Huawei, wishing to leave the cold war imperialist mentality in the distant past. And while you hardliners out there might retort that the daily headlines say otherwise, just remember how unreliable, distorted and inaccurate those headlines typically have become. It is not wise to count on them as anything more than a passing fancy devoid of any sense of the justice, democracy and freedom every individual should have the right to enjoy including Meng Wanzhou. 

Mario Cavolo is a Senior Fellow, Center for China and Globalization, author and media commentator on all things China. Join the discussion on social media with

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