China warns of "grave consequences" if Huawei executive is not released

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The other day, we told you that Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is being held in Canada after being arrested a week ago yesterday. A U.S. investigation reportedly found that Meng was involved in a plot to use the global banking system to do business with Iran. And that would be illegal due to current U.S. sanctions against that country. Meng, the 46-year old daughter of Huawei's founder, faces extradition to the U.S. For now, she remains detained in Canada with her bail hearing continuing tomorrow.

According to NBC News, China today "summoned" U.S. ambassador Terry Branstad, who met with Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng. During the meeting, the Vice Foreign Minister strongly protested the arrest of Huawei's CFO. Le added that the U.S. should drop its arrest warrant against Meng and told Ambassador Branstad that China's response will depend on what actions the U.S. decides to take.

The Vice Foreign Minister also met with Canadian Ambassador John McCallum. Yesterday Le told China's state run Xinhua News Agency that if Canada doesn't release Meng immediately, it will face "grave consequences." He says that the arrest is "unreasonable, unconscionable, and vile in nature."

The U.S. has been warning its allies not to use Huawei networking equipment for their 5G build out. Last June, senior U.S. lawmakers warned their Canadian counterparts that they should consider Huawei to be a threat to their national security. The company is the largest global supplier of networking equipment and is the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. You can learn more about Huawei by watching the video at the top of this article, produced by the Wall Street Journal.

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