In a page three editorial in the Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper today, China’s leadership makes the sternness of its position known in regard to the arrest in Canada of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟), the daughter of the company’s founder.
The commentary is attributed to “Zhong Sheng” (钟声), a pen name used in the paper since November 2008 for important pieces on international affairs on which the leadership wishes to register its view. The name “Zhong Sheng,” literally “bell tone,” is a shortened version of “bell tone to warn the world,” or jingshi zhongsheng (警世钟声).
Particularly of note in this commentary is the way it conflates arguments about the rights and dignity of Meng Wanzhou — even throwing in the term “human rights” — with an argument about the stature of the company Huawei. It mentions the fall in U.S. stocks that followed the arrest, as if to suggest that legal process should simply be suspended in such a case, or that Huawei is above the law.
But it is clear from the piece that the Chinese leadership, at least publicly, does not view this as a legal case at all, but purely as a political move on the part of the United States and Canada. The threats to Canada are unambiguous: dire consequences follow unless they relent and release Meng immediately.
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