China urges Canada to immediately release Huawei executive

China’s Foreign Ministry urged officials in Ottawa to immediately release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

On Tuesday, China claimed that legal procedures in the case against Wanzhou, who was arrested in December of 2018, had been abused. She was released on bail on 12 December but must remain in Vancouver.

Wanzhou was arrested for allegedly helping the Chinese tech company dodge US sanctions against Iran.

Following her arrest, China proceeded to arrest at least 13 Canadians and this week sentenced Robert Schellenberg to death for drug trafficking. He was arrested on 3 December and initially sentenced to a term of 15 years in prison, which since the Huawei case has been raised to the death penalty.

The Canadian government is concerned that this might simply be retaliation for the Huawei case.

"We are concerned [...] that China has begun to arbitrarily apply the death penalty, as the one faced by a Canadian in this case," criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.