BEIJING/TORONTO: China’s ambassador to Ottawa has accused Canada of “double standards” and disregarding his country’s judicial sovereignty, in a diplomatic row sparked by the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.
Beijing denounced Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. on Dec. 1 on a US extradition warrant, and threatened reprisals unless the case against Meng was dropped.
Days after the arrest, China detained two Canadian citizens — businessman Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat and an adviser with the International Crisis Group — whom it is investigating for endangering its national security.
In an article in the Ottawa-based Hill Times newspaper on Wednesday, Ambassador Lu Shaye said Canada’s demands for the release of the two men reflected “double standards” born of “Western egotism and white supremacy.”
Lu wrote, “It seems that, to those people, the laws of Canada or other Western countries are laws and must be observed, while China’s laws are not, and shouldn’t be respected.”
A lack of concern in Canada for Meng suggested that humanitarian treatment was only deemed necessary for Canadian citizens, not Chinese people, he added.
China has not drawn a direct link between its detention of the two Canadians and Meng’s arrest, but Beijing-based Western diplomats have called the cases a tit-for-tat reprisal.
While Meng has had full access to lawyers, has been granted bail and is able to see family, Kovrig is being denied legal representation, is not allowed to see family, and is limited to one consular visit a month.
The United States has sought to extradite Meng on charges of misleading multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions, putting the banks at risk of violating US sanctions.
Huawei is the world’s biggest supplier of telecoms network equipment and the second-biggest smartphone seller.
Since at least 2016, the United States has been looking into whether Huawei shipped US-origin products to Iran and other countries in violation of US export and sanctions laws, Reuters reported in April.
China envoy accuses Canada of ‘double standards’ over Huawei arrest
China envoy accuses Canada of ‘double standards’ over Huawei arrest
- Days after the arrest, China detained two Canadian citizens whom it is investigating for endangering its national security
- Huawei is the world’s biggest supplier of telecoms network equipment and the second-biggest smartphone seller
Zelensky says Russia using Belarus territory to circumvent Ukrainian defenses
- While President Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv’s defenses.
The Kremlin used Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Belarus remains a steadfast ally, though longstanding President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the conflict.
“We note that the Russians are trying to bypass our defensive interceptor positions through the territory of neighboring Belarus. This is risky for Belarus,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after a military staff meeting.
“It is unfortunate that Belarus is surrendering its sovereignty in favor of Russia’s aggressive ambitions.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks “in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings.
“Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-story apartment buildings, which help guide ‘Shaheds’ (Russian drones) to targets in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this.”
The Russian and Belarusian defense ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zelensky said the staff meeting also discussed ways of financing interceptor drones, which officials in Kyiv see as the best economically viable means of tackling Russian drone attacks, which have grown in intensity in recent months.
The president said the Ukrainian military’s general staff had been charged with working out changes to strategy in fending off air attacks “to defend infrastructure and frontline positions.”
Lukashenko this month said Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system, described by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as impossible to intercept, had been deployed to Belarus and entered active combat duty.
An assessment by two US researchers, reported by Reuters on Friday, said Moscow was likely stationing the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik at a former air base in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia’s ability to deliver missiles across Europe.
