Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

theglobeandmail.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 659 posts

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#41

Post by samstave »

dawhizkid wrote: post #12
fosk wrote: post #3

Can somebody explain to me on what authority the US can request the arrest of a Chinese national on Canadian soil for any action they took while conducting operations of a Chinese organization headquartered in China?

Did you read the article? US is alleging Huawei was shipping "U.S.-origin" products to Iran - probably U.S. made components for Huawei devices/technology. What "authority" do you need to ask for a favor from a friendly ally? Canada also has active economic sanctions against Iran.

I wonder if the type of component used even matters.

What if the us origin component was a plastic bezel, a screw or some peice of sheet metal in the chassis...

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#42

Post by amingilani »

janzij wrote: post #31
amingilani wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there, just want to remind you of the HN guidelines: Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." I'm sure you forgot. We all make mistakes.

Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read the HN guidelines.

I'm not sure if you're joking, but in case you're serious: I'm not :)

I'm merely reminding. People forget lists of rules written in pages they don't frequently visit. It's no big deal. Fun fact, though: the guidelines say nothing about telling people to read the guidelines themselves ;)

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#43

Post by [deleted] »

janzij wrote: post #31
amingilani wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there, just want to remind you of the HN guidelines: Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." I'm sure you forgot. We all make mistakes.

Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read the HN guidelines.

[deleted]

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#44

Post by wybiral »

bilbo0s wrote: post #34
estsauver wrote: post #22

I would not look forward to being an American businessman abroad in China right now. I think we're all used to the fiction that we live in a world that's totally governed by fairness and laws. That's been a pretty useful fiction for a long time, and in (some) of the developed world that's basically been how it's worked. But I really wonder how many shocks this system can take. I would bet money that an important US e…

Unfortunately, this is a pretty safe bet. That's why I always recommend that if you are going to go to China to do business, you should go with the goal of making people over there extremely rich. This will give you some protection. But yeah, if this is the game that the nations are going to play, then you don't want to be the poor schmuck sitting in a Chinese prison for 10 years just so they can make a point. It's p…

> But yeah, if this is the game that the nations are going to play, then you don't want to be the poor schmuck sitting in a Chinese prison for 10 years just so they can make a point.

Facilitating deals with Iran to deliver US products in defiance of US sanctions seems like something the average schmuck hopefully isn't getting mixed up in. It's not quite the same as accidentally violating some random domestic business laws.

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#45

Post by Brushfire »

comboy wrote: post #27
chapium wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She allegedly broke US law and was in the territory of a country that shares an extradition treaty with the US.

How sure can I be if my company is not breaking any Chinese laws? Would it by fine if I get arrested for breaking those when I'm on a trip to Asia? I'm not saying that Huawei is innocent, I just agree with the downvoted comment that the situation seems ridiculous.

When you do business in another country, you are subject to its laws. You can choose to not worry about other countries laws very easily: do not do any business there.

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#46

Post by dahdum »

comboy wrote: post #27
chapium wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She allegedly broke US law and was in the territory of a country that shares an extradition treaty with the US.

How sure can I be if my company is not breaking any Chinese laws? Would it by fine if I get arrested for breaking those when I'm on a trip to Asia? I'm not saying that Huawei is innocent, I just agree with the downvoted comment that the situation seems ridiculous.

You can't be sure, and that's a risk you'll always take when going to a country China can extradite you from. Singling China out is silly though, any country can do this, some just have more political clout to pull it off.

For instance, Thailand sought extradition of those insulting their king abroad.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/29/thailand-bhumi...

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#47

Post by dsl »

A tl;dr to address some of the obvious questions here:

In 2013 she set up a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom Tech. That company (attempted to) purchase HP computers from the United States and resell them to Iran. The deal did not involve Huawei products, but many of the documents related to the deal were labeled "Huawei confidential" indicating they created the shell company to conceal their involvement.

She broke the law by attempting to do a straw purchase for the Iranian government of US manufactured restricted goods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_purchase

Canada has an extradition agreement with the United States, so the Canadian government arrested her on behalf of the US.

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#48

Post by khuey »

samstave wrote: post #41
dawhizkid wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the article? US is alleging Huawei was shipping "U.S.-origin" products to Iran - probably U.S. made components for Huawei devices/technology. What "authority" do you need to ask for a favor from a friendly ally? Canada also has active economic sanctions against Iran.

I wonder if the type of component used even matters. What if the us origin component was a plastic bezel, a screw or some peice of sheet metal in the chassis...

In this case it was (allegedly) HP computer equipment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-huawei-skycom/exclusive-h...

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#49

Post by khuey »

anonymous5133 wrote: post #30

I also wonder what this is going to do to Canada's real estate market considering that Canada has basically been a "safe haven" for Chinese nationals to flock to basically launder their money.

Probably nothing. The Chinese looking at Canada as "a safe haven" are worried about their own government, not Canada's.

Re: Canada has arrested Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver

#50

Post by forkLding »

cronix wrote: post #38

> “Wanzhou Meng was arrested in Vancouver on December 1. She is sought for extradition by the United States, and a bail hearing has been set for Friday,” Justice department spokesperson Ian McLeod said in a statement to The Globe and Mail. “As there is a publication ban in effect, we cannot provide any further detail at this time. The ban was sought by Ms. Meng. I don't understand the last bit there about a "publicat…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication_ban

As stated on the wiki, likely because the publicity generated could affect the case. This case likely will get a lot of publicity.

Post reply on HN