Lesson for the future: cooperating with fascists does not lead to good things.
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Yeah, the problem for Canada is that we have a long history of cooperation between our law enforcement and US law enforcement. Trudeau said it wasn’t political and he was not consulted on the decision to arrest. That probably sounds like BS to the Chinese government but I’m pretty sure it’s 100% true. There’s probably pretty well defined processes for one of our countries to ask the other to pick up a wanted criminal for them.
I was far less certain that the American desire to arrest her wasn’t politically motivated. But now, even if it wasn’t, Trump has made the entire thing political. And a weird side effect of presidential pardon power is that he can essentially politically interfere with any federal criminal proceeding.
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Really the unusual circumstance here is that China expects Canada to make exceptions to normal behaviour. To not arrest Meng Wanzhou when requested to do so by the U.S. , or to release her without going through extradition hearings, would have been bizarre behaviour on our part. That China arrested a Canadian ex-diplomat as retaliation is regrettable for that individual but can only be seen as lawless and petulant and should not affect Canada’s actions in this matter. It should be noted that Canadian ex-diplomat will not be as comfortable during his incarceration as Meng Wanzhou will be. We don’t need to be on good terms China or Saudi Arabia or any of the world’s other bad actors. Here is a little piece from CBC radio about what may happen to Michael Kovrig while in detention in China, if you’re interested: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/edmonton-am/segment/15648304
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In case it’s not clear from the article this works both ways, criminals wanted by Canada can be caught in America too.
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Freeland also told reporters that a second Canadian citizen could be in trouble in China. Authorities in China are already holding former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was detained on Monday.
Freeland said it was obvious the legal process should not be hijacked for political purposes and that Meng’s lawyers would have the option of raising Trump’s remarks if they decided to fight extradition.
I’m afraid that dealing with idiots like Trump has given her a bad case of Resting Klingon Forehead.
A former Mexican ambassador to China suggested that the Canadian embassies / consulates in China should “have computer problems” in granting visas to Canada for Chinese elite visitors, to send a message without sending an insult.
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I agree with all of that, but Trump basically threw a huge wrench into that thinking by retroactively making the arrest a political one. If the US wants Meng Wanzhou for committing crimes, then Canada should act lawfully. If they want her as a bargaining chip in a trade war then we shouldn’t participate in their game, but the only way we could do that is if we straight up said that the US was being a bad actor, and Canada is ill-situated to do that. China, on the other hand, has all the ammunition they need to say that we are participating in political arrests and imprisonment.
All Trump had to so was talk about his electoral college victory or how big his dick is. He’s rather talk about that stuff anyway. I’m just lamenting his uncanny ability to say exactly the worst possible thing.
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The redefined nature of the arrest due trump would no doubt be part of the extradition hearing however I expect this issue having been moved to the trade war arena will be resolved before the hearing begins. Have you noted the rhetoric from China this morning, veiled threats and dire warnings? For me, this has little to do with trump and much to do with China. What’s the Canada China trade balance? 15 - 20 billion in their favour? see ya 
Yes, Canada, the U.S. and western countries in general are not perfect but part of that imperfection maybe is our willingness to do so much unconditional business with countries like China. Worth noting Meng Wanzhou has residences in Canada, and at one time had permanent resident status here, even though a very privileged person in China. Many wealthy and influential Chinese seem to feel the need for a bug out country … maybe in fact she’s happy being here right now. Where’s Xiao Jianhua ? ( a Canadian citizen, I believe )
China’s reaction is on China. They were going to lawlessly retaliate by targeting individual Canadians whether or not Trump said anything - Trump’s comments came after Kovrig’s arrest.
Just the same, the US reaction is on the US, and it’s very frustrating to see people put in harm’s way because the US president doesn’t care enough to think about the consequences of what he says.
no argument about trump, your comment “US president doesn’t care enough to think about the consequences of what he says” could apply to pretty much every deliberate action of his. My concern is that many Canadians think it may have not been prudent to act against Meng Wanzhou when requested to do so by the U.S. I’m sure negative consequences were foreseen, but I think it was the appropriate thing to do.
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It was most likely always a political arrest; Trump just said the quiet part out loud again.
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I’m not convinced it was out and out taking of political prisoners. But it’s pretty clear that plenty of American executives have done at least what she is accused of and no one is arresting them. It’s not like the American justice system is trustworthy.
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oh yes, the poor chinese, it’s so antagonistic insisting they follow laws and not aid murderous regimes. if only we’d stop bullying them i’m sure they’d stop putting uyghurs in concentration camps
Nice whataboutism. Sending arms to KSA isn’t currently illegal, and even if it was we should condemn both, both not use it as an excuse. I’m sorry it’s so oppressive to want China to follow export control laws.
Under US law.
Reminder that this was a Chinese citizen arrested in Canada en-route between Mexico and Hong Kong. As far as I am aware, trading with Iran is not illegal under Chinese law.
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Another poster addressed this earlier in the thread:
So they violated both Canadian law (which they are subject to by entering Canada) and American law.
Please take a few minutes to read through the comments to get up to speed - you wouldn’t want to give the impression you’re being purposefully obtuse and arguing in bad faith 
Coca-Cola does business in China.
Would you be happy if the Chinese government decided that this gave them the right to snatch American Coke executives off of flights that passed through third countries? I’m sure that they could find a labour rights violation or somesuch at one of their Chinese distribution centres to use as a pretext.
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I was under the impression that we should be acting to maximize the good in the world, regardless of what a strict pursuit of the letter of the law may entail. Are you arguing that sanctions on Iran have been effective to that end? Or are you arguing that China is, in fact, going to elect to spy on us less on the basis of this incident? Or are you arguing that this is somehow about justice for the Uyghurs?
You call it whataboutism, but the fact is that we pick and choose our human rights abusers as part of the same political process this incident is a part of. If you don’t see these as intrinsically connected to a broader game of managing and projecting international power, then you view the problem of human rights abusers far too narrowly.
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