Xinhua: China blames Canada, urging U.S. to stop seeking extradition of Huawei CFO. China on Tuesday urged Canada to immediately release Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou and the United States to withdraw its arrest warrant for her. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks at a regular news briefing after the United States informed the Canadian government that it planned to proceed with a formal request to extradite Meng. “China has repeatedly expressed its solemn position on the matter,” the spokesperson said. “Anyone with normal judgment could see that the Canadian side has made a serious mistake from the beginning and Meng’s case is not an ordinary judicial case,” Xinhua Agency reports.

MENAFN: Canada becomes Tunisia’s top packaged olive oil importer. Tunisia exported 766 tons of packaged olive oil in November and December to Canada, making the country climb into its top importer. CEO of the Tunisian Olive Oil Office (ONH) Chokri Bayoudh unveiled the figure, as reported Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP). Canada, according to the CEO of ONH, exceeded Spain and Italy in its imports of the Tunisian packaged olive oil.

CNBC: Huawei executive can make good case against extradition – Canada envoy. A top executive from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd can make a good case against being extradited to the United States, in part due to remarks made by U.S. President Donald Trump, Canada’s ambassador to China said in comments broadcast on Wednesday. The remarks by John McCallum to Chinese-language media on Tuesday were the most explicit indication yet from a Canadian official that Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, might avoid being sent to the United States. Meng was detained on Dec. 1 in Vancouver, where she is currently under house arrest.

Washington Post: It’s an election year in Canada. Here’s what could bring down Trudeau. Canada’s 2019 federal election is nine months away, but the political machinery is already humming. Parties are nominating candidates. Fundraising efforts are picking up. Backroom wizards are working out the angles of agenda-setting and framing — what the election will “be about” and how candidates will discuss whatever that may be. Most people — the well-adjusted types, bless their souls, who don’t track politics for a living or for sport — aren’t paying much attention to the electioneering yet and probably won’t until the fall. But it’s happening. There’s a good chance that Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party will continue to govern Canada after the October election, writes David Moscrop.

The Guardian: Trudeau’s environmental record on the line in Canada election year. In his four years leading Canada, the Liberal prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has gone to great lengths – at home and abroad – to bolster his environmental credentials. Now, with a federal election looming, he is gambling his parliamentary majority and political future on them. When Canadians cast their votes next October, they will do so amid standard electoral issues: jobs, the economy and foreign policy. But in a country largely dependent on resource extraction, a pair of politically fractious additions have risen to the top: carbon taxes and pipelines. By Leyland Cecco.

Russia Today: Huawei may pull out of markets where it is not ‘welcome.’ Chinese tech giant Huawei says it will focus on countries “where we are welcome” amid accusations the firm poses security risks in the West, chairman Liang Hua reportedly said during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Washington has accused Huawei of spying, and of posing a security threat to the US. It has been pushing its overseas allies to impose restrictions on the company. Australia and New Zealand have already restricted Huawei’s involvement in the development of their 5G networks, while Japan is set to ban the government from purchases of Huawei products. The UK also followed the US lead and voiced“deep” concerns over the telecom provider, while Washington may reportedly go even further and fully squeeze the company out of its market. On the sidelines of the WEF, the company hinted that it is not going to tolerate such hostility any longer and may simply pull out of countries who do not want it to stay, according to chairman of Huawei’s board of directors, Liang Hua.

Deutsche Welle: Chinese court sentences Canadian drug suspect to death. A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a Canadian man to death on drug trafficking charges after a retrial deemed his original 15-year prison sentence to be too lenient. The Dalian court said Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, 36, who was detained in December 2014, played a “key part” in an international drug smuggling operation and was recruited to help smuggle more than 222 kilograms (488 pounds) of methamphetamine from a warehouse in Dalian city to Australia. The ruling has deepened a rift between China and Canada, with the sentence coming on the back of China’s discontent with Canada’s arrest of a top executive from Chinese telecom giant Huawei in December on a US extradition request related to alleged violations of US sanctions against Iran.

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