It is five days since the world learned the daughter of the founder of China's Huawei Technologies was being held in the custody of Canadian authorities at the request of the United States, which wants to extradite her to face charges of breaching its sanctions on Iran. Sometimes it takes a few days for the world to awaken to the full implications of this sort of action.
On the face of it, the US demand and Canada's compliance with seem outrageous. Meng Wanzhou is the chief financial officer of the giant digital technology company which is competing keenly with US firms and others for the next generation of services.
At her bail application in Vancouver last Friday a Canadian prosecutor said the US alleges Meng committed fraud five years ago by telling financial institutions Huawei had no connection with a Hong Kong-based company, Skycom, which was said to be selling US goods to Iran in violation of the US sanctions.
Her lawyers denied the charges, saying Huawei had sold Skycom four years earlier. Though she and her husband have homes in Vancouver and she offered to wear a tracking device and pay for around the clock surveillance, the prosecutor considered her a flight risk and opposed bail.
If this seems unobjectionable, consider what the reaction would be in Washington if an American company executive was being held in captivity at the behest of China's Government for something so trifling. It would be a full blown international crisis, probably bringing threats from the White House of dire consequences.
