BEIJING (AP) — A former foreign policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Chinese pressure on the Canadian government to release a top executive of Huawei won’t work.
In a tweet, Roland Paris says, “Perhaps because the Chinese state controls its judicial system, Beijing sometimes has difficulty understanding or believing that courts can be independent in a rule-of-law country. There’s no point in pressuring the Canadian government. Judges will decide.”
Paris was responding to reports from Beijing that China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng had summoned Canadian Ambassador John McCallum on Saturday over the holding of Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who is reportedly suspected of trying to evade U.S. trade curbs on Iran.
Le called Meng’s detention “unreasonable, unconscionable, and vile in nature” and warned of “grave consequences” if she is not released.
