By Claude Barfield

While continuing to thwart
Huawei on 5G, the Joe Biden administration should drop its extradition
proceedings in Canada against Meng Wanzhou, the company’s chief financial
officer (and daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei). Whatever Meng’s alleged
— and likely accurate — past crimes, continuing the criminal suit smacks of a
personal vendetta and blights the legitimacy of the United States’
international effort to rein in Huawei’s state-subsidized wireless dominance.

For those who haven’t
followed the tortuous Canadian court actions against Meng, here’s a brief
summary. In December 2018, Meng was detained in Vancouver (where she has a
substantial property) by the Canadian police at the behest of the United
States. She has since been held there under house arrest.

Under an existing US-Canada
extradition agreement, the US has called for her removal to
the US, charging her with bank and wireless fraud — along with a violation of
US sanctions on Iran. Specifically, Meng is alleged to have misled
several banks, particularly HSBC, about the company’s relationship with a
subsidiary in Iran called Skycom. Meng, who has been “marooned” in Vancouver
for two years, has employed distinguished Canadian and US lawyers for her
defense. Without success thus far, they have argued Meng’s due process rights
were violated during her arrest, that the extradition should be dropped because
Canadian law does not sanction Iran, and that Canada would violate other
international laws if it allowed her removal to the US.

From the outset, the case has been inextricably entwined in geopolitics and the US-China trade war. As was his desire, former President Donald Trump polluted the legal case by stating in 2018 that he would intervene with the Department of Justice if Beijing agreed to certain trade demands. In turn, China has demonstrated the brutality of its new diplomacy by detaining two Canadian citizens on bogus spying charges — and keeping them locked in isolation for over two years. Escalating the pressure on Canada, Beijing recently announced their trials would begin in the next few days. The trials will likely be conducted in secret with little chance for rebuttal and a high likelihood of stiff sentences.

The Biden administration
has now embarked on a full-scale review of US China policy. It should quickly
decide how it will handle this case. Back in December 2020, there were rumors
that the Trump administration was considering a deal in which if Meng
would admit to one of the charges, then the US would ultimately not pursue the
case. However, talks stalled when Meng proved reluctant to admit any guilt in
the episode.

The Biden administration
has vowed to take a tough stand
on China and has left in place many sanctions inherited from the Trump
administration. In pursuing its own goals, the Biden administration should
combine toughness with conciliation. Specifically — as argued previously — the
president should employ targeted pressure on Huawei, particularly with regard
to the rollout of 5G wireless networks. This means continuing to press US allies to
ban baseline Huawei equipment from their 5G portfolios. Further, the administration
should continue denying US companies
(and foreign companies utilizing US components) licenses to supply Huawei with
5G-vital semiconductors.

With these tough Huawei policies reaffirmed, Biden should instruct the Department of Justice to negotiate a settlement with Meng’s legal team. If they can get some admission of culpability from Meng, fine. If not, the US should still arrange a “deferred prosecution agreement” that would allow Meng to return to China. It is time to clear the decks for serious US-China negotiations over deep trade and security divisions.

In this fraught situation,
Meng Wanzhou represents a messy distraction from more pressing issues. Would
the US actually incarcerate her for years in a federal prison if found guilty?
And finally, it is time to free Canada from the nightmare that has accompanied
its steadfast adherence to its US alliance commitments.

The post Rein in Huawei, but free Meng Wanzhou appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.