I am back with journalist and activist KJ Noh, retired SF Judge Julie Tang, and activist/writer Dan Freeman-Maloy. Meng Wanzhou is free and back in China! We painted a pretty pessimistic picture for you in AEP 95 before the ruling, then poof! The Canadian election happened and Meng was on a plane back to China! Dan goes over some Canadian history of anti-Chinese racism; Julie helps us go over the Deferred Prosecution Agreement and what it means; KJ helps us assess whether this was a victory or a defeat. We conclude with some of Meng’s own words, and some ruminations on the future of Huawei, of HSBC, and of the “American Trap”.
Tag: Meng Wanzhou
AEP 95: Waiting for Heather Holmes’s judgment in the Meng Wanzhou case
Journalist KJ Noh and retired SF Superior Court judge Julie Tang join me to talk about the Meng Wanzhou case, in which Canada has kidnapped a Chinese executive at US request in 2018. As we await judgement which may come in October or November after the September Federal Election, British Columbia judge Heather Holmes has pondered the nature of a fraud case with no harm and where the alleged fraud “victim” (in this case the British bank HSBC) had the facts that were allegedly withheld. I’ve covered this case for a while and understanding it requires knowledge of the law, of extradition, of US unilateral sanctions on Iran, the US tech war with China, Britain’s colonial history with China, and quite a bit else. We try to find you a way through it all in this episode (but you might want to go back and listen to the earlier series too). Having done the wrong thing for so long, is there any hope Canada would do the right thing now? Ultimately, we are advocating here to Free Meng Wanzhou!
AEP 80: My comments on The Arrest of Meng Wanzhou and the New Cold War on China
On March 1, I was on a panel hosted by the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, the Canadian Peace Congress, World Beyond War, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, and Just Peace Associates. The topic was “the Arrest of Meng Wanzhou and the New Cold War on China”. Other panelists were Radhika Desai, William Ging Wee Dere, and John Ross – all of whom covered different aspects of the situation. I focused my remarks on Canada’s own record of genocide and racism, summarizing some of what we’ve been talking about in recent Civilizations episodes. The whole panel is out there on youtube – this audio is just my talk, 17 minutes long.
AEP 59: The American Trap sprung on Tiktok and Huawei, with Carl Zha
Back with Carl Zha of Silk & Steel podcast, who we last saw in our episode on the India-China border conflict.
We’re thinking of calling this the Kung Fu Yoga series. In this one, Justin has just finished reading the terrifying book The American Trap by Frederic Pierucci (which Carl notes has 100,000 reviews for the Chinese edition so far). Pierucci was jailed for 30 months in the US in a 5-year long ordeal that ended in his company, the French multinational Alstom, selling off its entire nuclear division to General Electric.
We talk about Pierucci’s case in detail and its relevance to the kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou of Huawei and Trump’s ban of Tiktok: the use of the US’s judicial apparatus to seize billions in assets from other countries, including allied countries, and including entire businesses.
Carl thinks China’s only possible response is to build its own tech stack from the bottom up.
AEP 55: The Meng Wanzhou case part 3 with George Koo
We’ve covered the legal treachery of the Meng Wanzhou case (part 1) and the history of Canadian racism (part 2).
Now in part 3, a deep dive into 5G technology, Huawei, its founder and Meng’s father Ren Zhengfei, the semiconductor industry, and US sabotage of its rivals, with writer and analyst George Koo.
This episode is so detailed you might be able to make microchips after listening.
AEP 54 – On the roots of structural racism in Canada: On the Meng Wanzhou case, part 2
Lord Elgin, who gave Canada Responsible Government, also burned the summer palace in China during the British Empire’s Opium War.
Sir John A. MacDonald sung the glories of the Aryan Race from the floor the House of Commons in 1885.
The poem “White Canada Forever” was aimed specifically at the supposed “Yellow Peril”.
And apparently the claws of the panda have sunk into Canadian society? Dan tried to read all the Canadian media coverage about the case since the BC Supreme court judgement and couldn’t find anything of interest in it.
In this episode we talk about the relationship between racism and propaganda in the past hundred years of Canadian history, and how understanding what Canada is can help you understand the Meng Wanzhou case unfolding today. Part 2 of the series on Meng Wanzhou.
AEP 53: The Kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou and what it reveals about how the world works. Part 1, with KJ Noh
An executive of one of China’s largest tech companies is detained in Canada accused of violating US sanctions against Iran. This story has many threads, and each one reveals something very important about our world. In Part 1, I talk to activist and writer KJ Noh about the BC Supreme Court’s decision to keep Meng Wanzhou imprisoned in Canada.