Extradition hearing for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou begins in Canada

The first stage of an extradition hearing for a senior executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei begins Monday in a Vancouver courtroom, a case that has infuriated Beijing, set off a diplomatic furore and raised fears of a brewing tech war between China and the United States. Canada’s arrest of chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s legendary founder, in late 2018 at America’s request shocked Beijing. Huawei represents China’s ambitions to become a technological power but has been the subject of US security concerns for years. Beijing views Meng’s case as an attempt to contain China’s rise. “This is one of the top priorities for the Chinese government. They’ve been very mad. They will be watching this very closely,” said Wenran Jiang, a senior fellow at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia.