Huawei case called key to relations reset

Canadian ex-officials and a current senator said the country has a chance to reset its relationship with China with the incoming US administration and should see China as a global neighbor rather than a threat.

Following the results of the Nov 3 US presidential election, the American approach to China is expected to be different. Such policy changes might have a deep impact on Canada-China relations as well.

One key contingency for that change would be a resolution to the extradition case of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 by Canadian authorities at the request of the United States.

On Tuesday, a Canadian border official testified in British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was "very persistent" in seeking information after Meng's arrest.

Nicole Goodman, a chief at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in charge of agents investigating Meng the day she was detained, told the court that an Ottawa-based legal attache for the FBI reached out repeatedly asking for Meng's travel history in Canada and other private information after she was taken into custody by the Canadian federal police on a US warrant for bank fraud.

Goodman told the court she did not have the authority to share the requested information.

"I would never be releasing information to the FBI at my level," she said.

Meng's lawyers have argued that US and Canadian authorities illegally coordinated during the investigation and arrest. They claim that Canadian border agents intentionally gave identifying details about Meng's electronic devices — including passcodes to Canadian police. They further allege that Canadian police shared those details with the FBI.

Meng, 48, is facing charges of bank fraud in the US for allegedly misleading HSBC Holdings PLC about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break US sanctions. Meng and Huawei have denied the charges.

Goodman testified that she discovered the CBSA may have accidentally shared passcodes with police during a debrief meeting after Meng's arrest. CBSA has previously testified that the passcodes to Meng's electronic devices were shared with the Canadian federal police in error.

Goodman said when information sharing came up, agent Scott Kirkland went pale and looked distressed.

"I remember it vividly," she said. "I wanted to know, what's wrong here, Scott?"

Goodman learned that Kirkland had written passcodes on a piece of paper, and he did not know whether the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) took it or not at that time, she testified.

She believed the passcode sharing was "100 percent accidental".

Earlier on Tuesday RCMP Sergeant Ross Lundie, who was serving as the force's airport liaison when Meng was arrested, told the court that he recalled overhearing one of his RCMP colleagues discussing passcodes, potentially to Meng's devices, with a Canadian border agent.

"At that time I had no idea why there would be passwords to phones ... obtained by anybody," he said.

"The arrest of Meng did not go well, especially when the G7 was going on, there might be some misunderstanding going on," John Baird, former foreign minister of Canada said during an online Canada-China Economic Forum on Sunday.

"I could never understand why Meng was arrested in Canada. … I hope we can call upon (US President-elect) Joe Biden to drop the case," Baird said.

"I think Biden might be able to reboot our relationship with China. Those relationships (with China) were very helpful for Canada, including tourism, trade and education, etc," said Baird, who also said he was concerned about the amount of "China-bashing" in Canadian media and politics.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the US would consider dropping the extradition request and allow Meng to return to China if she admitted wrongdoing.

Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to China, said the report was "a calculated leak" of a potential triangular solution for the three nations involved.

"Since Canada arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, all dialogue has been suspended," said Saint-Jacques. "I find it is hard to get our legitimate concerns heard during our conversation with China."

"With Meng's case, how much of it is related to national security, and how much of it is related to the political interest of certain groups?" Li Cheng, director of the John Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, asked the webinar.

Saint-Jacques, who believes Canada should work with countries to pressure China to release two Canadian men who were detained in China on espionage charges shortly after Meng was arrested, said Canada should take a firmer stand over issues such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang and promote Canadian values to the Chinese.

The men, businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig, are in good mental and physical condition, Ottawa's ambassador to Beijing said on Tuesday.

"They are both very healthy, physically and mentally," Ambassador Dominic Barton told a special parliamentary committee on Canada's ties with China.

At Sunday's forum, Baird countered that Canada needs to take a "practical approach" rather than one focused on "values and ideology".

"We can have both. If we only want to talk about our values, we cannot work with Africa and much of Asia. I believe we still need to have a better relationship with China," Baird added.

Baird said that most Canadians have no idea how much overseas Chinese students bring to the country economically and culturally.

Li believes that "values could be universal, but no values should be superior", and he called for a more realistic approach to China.

"If you see the COVID-19 pandemic, China controlled it very well," Li said, emphasizing how people rallied around the government response to the coronavirus. "So where would the US find people to overthrow the Chinese government? This is ridiculous. We need to be more open-minded with China."

Yuen Pau Woo, a Canadian senator and former president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said Canada needs to rethink its relationship with China and said it is one of Ottawa's most important issues. "A lot of our discussion about China is very superficial," Woo said.

Pierre Trudeau (the late former prime minister of Canada and father of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau), established diplomatic relations with China 50 years ago because he believed it was more important to have China "in the tent".

Talking about the Trump administration's "elegant solution" to resolving Meng's case, Woo believes the solution will be a "political one".

"We know how politicized the DPA (deferred prosecution agreement) is. There may be an opportunity with the Biden administration; the US might want to reenter the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal reached with Iran in 2015). If so, it will be a get-out-of-jail-free card for Meng Wanzhou," Woo said.

Woo said China should be viewed as a global neighbor of Canada's.
"Many people might be fearful of this concept. But look at where you live; there are neighbors that are different from you, and maybe sometimes you don't like to, but you have to deal with them," Woo said.

Reuters contributed to this story.