China on Tuesday expressed serious concerns at the charges filed by the US against Chinese telecom giant Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, and urged Washington to stop its ‘unreasonable bashing’ of Chinese companies.
“China is highly concerned about the US Department of Justice’s charges against Huawei and its Vice Chairman and CFO Ms. Meng Wanzhou,” stated Chinese foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at a briefing in Beijing.
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced 13 criminal expenses against Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, and its affiliates inside the U.S. and Hong Kong. Meng is currently on bail in Vancouver.
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This comes days ahead of the US-Sino trade talks scheduled to be held this week.
He said that for some time the US has been using national power to ‘tarnish and crack down on particular Chinese businesses in an attempt to strangle their lawful and legitimate operations’.
“Behind such practices are deep political intentions and manipulations. We strongly urge the US to stop its unreasonable bashing on Chinese companies including Huawei, and treat them objectively and fairly,” Geng said.
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On the US seeking extradition of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, the spokesperson said that the US and Canada had ‘abused their bilateral extradition agreement’ and taken ‘compulsory measures’ towards a Chinese citizen ‘for reason.’
— Huawei Technologies (@Huawei) January 29, 2019
He urged the US to ‘immediately withdraw’ its arrest warrant for Meng, refrain from making a proper extradition request, and ‘stop going further down the wrong path’. The spokesperson also urged Canada to immediately release Meng.
Late on Monday, Canada’s Justice branch confirmed that they had received a formal extradition request from the U.S.
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Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said that thirteen counts of bank and wire fraud relate to Huawei’s claim that its affiliate operating in Iran, Skycom, was a separate, unrelated company. As a result of that claim, it was able to borrow money from U.S. Banks.
Skycom, that’s based totally in Hong Kong did business in Iran on behalf of Huawei, he alleged.
The Chinese reaction comes hours after the US on Monday (local time) filed criminal charges against Huawei on grounds of stealing intellectual property.
(With ANI inputs)
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