China calls this a violation of "human rights"

Meng, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Ltd., was arrested because the company was trying to avoid US restrictions on trade in Iran.

Huawei, the world's largest provider of network hardware used by the telephone and Internet companies, has been aiming to deepen the security concerns of the United States. Under President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, Washington has put pressure on European countries and their allies to limit the use of its technology. The United States, Australia and many other countries consider Huawei and the smaller Chinese technology providers as possible fronts for espionage.

A statement by the Chinese government stated that Meng had not violated any US or Canadian law and demanded that Canada "immediately correct the error" and release it.

Beijing has asked Washington and Ottawa to explain the reason for his arrest, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang. He said his arrest was "a violation of his human rights".

Meng is a prominent member of the Chinese business world as Huawei's vice-chairman of the board and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, a former Chinese military engineer.

Despite this, his arrest should not derail trade negotiations, said Willy Lam, a policy specialist at the Hong Kong Chinese University.

"I think too much is at stake for Xi Jinping. He desperately wants a settlement, "said Lam.

INTERNATIONAL VOLTAGE

The moment of arrest is delicate after the announcement of a US-China ceasefire in a trade war that has its roots in Beijing's technology policy. Meng was arrested in Vancouver on Saturday, the day Trump and Xi Jinping met in Argentina and announced their agreement.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton told NPR that he was aware of the imminent arrest. He declined to talk about the details of the case and said that he did not know if Trump was aware before this happened, but added that there was a huge concern about the practice of Chinese companies such as Huawei who allegedly use stolen intellectual property in the United States. He said it would be a major topic of negotiations with China.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he had been warned a few days in advance of Canadian authorities' intention to arrest him, but that it was a decision of the forces of order and that there was no political interference. "I can badure everyone that we are a country with an independent judiciary and that the competent authorities have made the decisions in this case without any political involvement or interference," Trudeau said.

RELATED: How China built the perfect dystopian society

He also stated that he could not say more because of a publication ban. A spokesman for the Department of Justice Canada said Meng had asked for the ban and the department could not say more.

Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said that Canada and the United States had signed an extradition treaty and that Canada had obligations that even the first Minister could not change.

"The prime minister can not call the judge and say," Free this person, please. "Unless the treaty is repealed, it will continue," Houlden said. "It's a really difficult case for Canada. The extradition treaty binds us widely. David Mulroney, Canada's former ambbadador to China, said US and Canadian business leaders could be subject to retaliation in China.

"It's something we should be watching. It's a possibility. China is playing hard, "said Mulroney. "He is a prominent member of their society and a society that truly embodies China's quest for global recognition as a technological power."

COMMERCIAL "CONTAINMENT"

Stock markets have fallen on the news, fearing a resurgence of US-China tensions that threaten global economic growth. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 2.5% and the German DAX sank 1.8%. In the US, stocks lost more than 780 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, before the Dow ended with a 79-point decline.

But the Ministry of Commerce said Beijing wanted to avoid disrupting the settlement of the dispute with Washington over the technology policy that had led them to raise tariffs on billions of dollars of respective goods.

China is confident that it can conclude a trade deal in the 90 days that Trump agreed to suspend US tariff increases, said ministry spokesman Gao Feng. Trump's tariff increases on imports from China stem from complaints that Beijing steals or is pressuring foreign companies to transmit the technology. But US officials are also more worried about Chinese projects to create Chinese champions of robotics, artificial intelligence and other areas under the aegis of the country. State may erode American industrial leadership.

"The United States is strengthening China's control in every respect," said Zhu Feng, an expert in international relations at Nanjing University.

He said targeting Huawei, one of his most successful companies, "will spark an anti-American sentiment."

"The incident could prove to be a breaking point," Zhu said.

Last month, New Zealand prevented a mobile phone company from using Huawei equipment, saying it posed "a significant risk to network security".

The company was banned in August from working on the fifth generation Australian network. On Wednesday, British telephone operator BT said it was removing Huawei equipment from the heart of its mobile phone networks. Huawei is still a supplier of other equipment and a "valuable innovation partner". The Wall Street Journal reported this year that US authorities were investigating whether Huawei had violated the sanctions imposed on Iran.