World Trudeau won't comment on possible release of Huawei CFO, says priority is Canadians held in China

By Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren

© Reuters/BLAIR GABLE FILE PHOTO: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a news conference in Ottawa

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday declined to comment on talks between the U.S. Justice Department and lawyers that could lead to the release of a senior Huawei executive who is under house arrest in Vancouver.

Trudeau told reporters that his "top priority" was the return of two Canadian citizens being held in China. The two were picked up shortly after Canadian police detained Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in December 2018 on a U.S. arrest warrant.

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As a prominent China critic and advocate of Hong Kong’s freedoms, Benedict Rogers is used to unwanted attention. But even he was surprised when he found out that the Chinese embassy in London had attempted to persuade members of the British Parliament to warn him off. The episode occurred in 2017 when Rogers was deputy chair of the ruling Conservative Party’s human rights commission that he co-founded. According to three separate people familiar with the events, the embassy lobbied Conservative MPs to try and convince Rogers, who is not a lawmaker, to “shut up” about China.

China has detained a former Canadian diplomat on unknown charges in what appears to be a kind of tit-for-tat retaliation for the arrest of the chief financial officer of China ’s Huawei Technologies ten “We are aware of the situation of a Canadian detained in China ,” said Canadian PM Justin Trudeau .

China has formally arrested two Canadian citizens it’s been holding since December in an apparent effort to pressure Canada into releasing a Chinese telecom Justin Trudeau says Beijing needs to allow legal processes to unfold independently.

"We will continue working hard for the return of the two Michaels," he said, referring to Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. "Two years is a very long time to be in prison in China, or anywhere," Trudeau said at a news conference. "We will continue to do all the work that's necessary to get them back."

U.S. prosecutors are discussing a deal with lawyers for Huawei's Meng to resolve criminal charges against her, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday, signaling a potential end to a case that has strained ties between the United States, China and Canada.

Meng, 48, faces bank fraud charges over allegations she misled HSBC Holdings Plc about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, which was subject to U.S. sanctions. She is currently fighting extradition in a Vancouver court.

After Meng's arrest, China cut off imports of canola seed from Canada and detained the two Canadian citizens on allegations of spying.

The affair has thrust Canada into the middle of a U.S.-China trade war, and Trudeau's failure to gain the release of Kovrig and Spavor has exposed his minority government to mounting pressure from opposition parties who want the prime minister to take a tougher stance on China.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren, Editing by Franklin Paul and Grant McCool)