Rogers Sportsnet briefly toned down the Huawei sponsorship of Hockey Night in Canada after the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou last year. That lasted a single week. In very late 2019, Huawei still has the prominent sponsorship slot on Hockey Night in Canada.
Entrepreneur Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig have now spent over a year in Chinese custody leading lives far more traumatic than the house arrest of Meng Wanzhou.
The United States had an arrest warrant for Meng citing violations of trade sanctions with Iran. The extradition process has gone on for a very long period of time.
We've gone through a number of steps in the process but again, Meng Wanzhou is in Canada, not the United States or China. Canada has paid the only price, an extensive price in human costs and trade restrictions with different human costs.
Canola farmers in Canada latest pawn in China battle over Meng Wanzhou arrest
Among the Five Eyes intelligence gathering countries (Canada, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom), Canada has not decided whether Huawei will have anything to do with 5G. The country's Five Eyes status is being threatened if Huawei is involved with 5G in Canada. Canada will likely have a decision in 2020.
NHL the week in preview December 21, 2018
Canada paying a price to go along with U.S. desire to arrest Meng Wanzhou
Huawei's financial ties to Canadian universities are more than $56 million, according to a CBC News story this month. The story also notes that the academic research is part of an overall $164 million on research in Canada in 2018.
Huawei should be more conciliatory since Canada might let the company be a part of the 5G system in the country. Given the reported ties between Huawei and the Chinese government, and how the Chinese government has essentially kidnapped 2 Canadians (Spavor and Kovrig), why would Canada say yes to Huawei?
Meng Wanzhou was arrested December 1 in the Vancouver airport. The 1-year anniversary of the arrests of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig came earlier this month. China has hinted at upcoming trials for Spavor and Kovrig, not that they will be trials in any North American sense. Justice often moves too slowly. This case needs to be settled soon.
Meng Wanzhou 1-year anniversary blog post (Huawei.com)
Is a Canada-China prisoner swap a good idea? (The Current on CBC)
What Canadian universities gain and lose by accepting Huawei funding (Front Burner CBC Radio)
Sanctioned: The Arrest of a Telecom Giant (CBC podcasts)
If you know very little about the Meng Wanzhou story, the CBC podcast series Sanctioned: The Arrest of a Telecom Giant has a basic overview. If you've kept up with our coverage, you won't learn too much more in the series.
photo credit: Rogers Sportsnet
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