In 12 hours, more than one million netizens around the world have signed an open petition launched by the Global Times on Wednesday night in demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, as she has been arbitrarily detained by Canada for nearly 1,000 days.
Meng Wanzhou Photo: VCG
As August 26 marks 1,000 days since Huawei's Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada, the Global Times launched an online petition on Wednesday calling for her release.
The incident is a blatant political persecution of a Chinese citizen and another example of the US government's unjustified crackdown on Chinese companies and its attempts to curb the development of China's high-tech industry, according to the petition. The petition also calls the Canadian government a ‘’willing accomplice’’ in the process.
Within 12 hours, over 1 million signatures have been collected from netizens from all around the world, showing the collective voice of people calling for the Canadian government to release the illegally detained Huawei senior executive.
The majority of Chinese people are very angry with Canada, considering Meng’s case is a blatant political persecution of a Chinese citizen by Canada..
Also on Wednesday, the Global Times released an open letter to Canadian Ambassador to China Dominic Barton, demanding Meng's immediate and unconditional release.
A marathon extradition hearing for Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou concluded in the British Columbia Supreme Court, Canada, on Wednesday, a ruling from the court is expected in the coming months.
Huawei Canada said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday morning that from the start, Huawei has been confident in Meng’s innocence and it has trusted the Canadian judicial system.
In her defense, Meng’s counsel raised four branches of abuse of the process in fighting the extradition case, including the political motivation behind the case, the unlawful detention, material omissions and misstatements and violations of customary international law, according to the statement.
And during the hearing process, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes raised the question, saying that “isn’t it unusual that one will see a fraud case with no actual harm many years later?”
Meng's lawyers concluded their submissions at the extradition proceedings on Tuesday with a final attempt to end the case by building on an "evidentiary vacuum," claiming that the US fraud charges simply aren't valid.
The case is widely seen as an unusual one with a number of points of suspicion.
Meng was accused of defrauding HSBC as she was alleged to have "lied to the bank about the Chinese company's business in Iran," and the accusations have centered on a previous PowerPoint presentation that Meng gave to the bank in a steakhouse in Hong Kong in 2013.
However, Meng's lawyers claim that the US deliberately omitted two slides from the PowerPoint presentation, which showed that Meng didn't mislead the bank at all.
So, days ago on court, associate Justice Holmes asked a Crown lawyer that “one in which the alleged victim, a large institution, appears to have had numerous people within the institution who had all the facts that are now said to be misrepresented?”
As proceedings concluded, Meng’s counsel asked the court to consider the cumulative impact of branches of abuse, and grant Meng her freedom, the statement said, noting that Huawei has been supporting Meng’s pursuit of justice and freedom, “we continue to do so today.”
As the extradition court proceedings came to an end, the Global Times launched an online petition on Wednesday calling for her immediate release. And, the Global Times released an open letter to Canadian Ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, demanding Meng's unconditional release.