(Bloomberg) -- China accused Canada of violating a bilateral agreement by failing to speedily inform its consulate of the arrest of Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, as tensions between the nations continue to escalate.
“According to the China-Canada consular agreement, if a Chinese citizen is arrested by the Canadian government, the Canadian government should immediately notify the Chinese embassy,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing on Monday. “But the Canadian government didn’t do that.”
Lu declined to answer multiple follow-up questions on when exactly Beijing found out about the detention.
Over the weekend, Chinese authorities separately summoned the ambassadors of Canada and the U.S. to protest Meng’s arrest on allegations that she committed fraud to sidestep sanctions against Iran. The case has become a flash-point in ties between the U.S. and China that’s rattled investors and sent stock markets tumbling.
China warned Canada it would face grave consequences if it didn’t release Meng immediately. In a separate statement, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said U.S. actions have violated the “legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and are extremely bad in nature,” while also pledging further action.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: David Ramli in Beijing at dramli1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Sharon Chen
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