Chinese officials on Sunday summoned U.S. ambassador to China Terry Branstad to denounce the arrest of a prominent telecom executive in Canada at the behest of American prosecutors.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng “lodged solemn representations and strong protests” over Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou’s arrest in Vancouver, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Meng was arrested on Dec. 1, the same day President Trump dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G-20 summit in Argentina, with talks on trade relations described afterward as promising.
Officials have said that Trump didn’t know about the planned arrest, but National Security Adviser John Bolton said he learned about plans from a routine Justice Department briefing beforehand.
Meng was arrested during a layover in a case reportedly tied to suspected evasion of U.S. sanctions on Iran. The massive phone-technology company, however, also has been suspected by U.S. authorities of enabling surveillance and information theft from cellphone users.
Xinhua, a government-run outlet, described Meng’s detention as “unreasonable” and described the foreign minister, Le, calling it “vile in nature.”
“China will respond further according to the U.S. side’s actions,” Le said.
