Fallout from the arrest of the arrest of Chinese telecom company Huawei’s chief financial officer has continued, with China accusing the US of “hooliganism”.
Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada at the behest of US authorities, with at least one US senator revealing that her extradition to the United States has been requested over alleged breaches of US sanctions against Iran.
Chinese state-run media has reacted furiously to the arrest, levelling a number of accusations at the US even as the world’s two largest economies are involved in a bitter trade dispute that has rocked world markets.
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State-run China Daily says the US is “trying to do whatever it can to contain Huawei’s expansion in the world” because of the company’s dominant place in the global market.
Another state-run outlet, the Global Times, says America is “resorting to a despicable rogue’s approach”, by “maliciously finding fault with Huawei” and damage the company’s reputation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his government had “no involvement in the arrest”, in an attempt to distance his country from the mounting fallout.
US national security advisor John Bolton has admitted to knowing about the arrest before it took place, and denied that Donald Trump had been informed.
Meng was arrested on the same day that Trump sat down to dinner with Chinese president Xi Jinpeng at the G20 summit in Argentina.
Meanwhile, Japan has become the latest country to announce it is set to introduce a ban on any government purchase of Huawei’s 5G technologies, “over fears of intelligence leaks and cyber attacks”, The Guardian says.