On a fan community page on Chinese social media platform Weibo, hundreds of users have posted comments and pictures, some covered in little red hearts, to express their admiration for a star they affectionately call Kun Kun. “Kun Kun flies bravely, iKun will always follow him; Kun Kun never gets old, and will remain a blue-chip till the end,” some users wrote alongside the picture. “Kun Kun,” whose full name is Zhang Kun, is neither a pop star nor actor. Instead, he is one of China’s most prominent fund managers who oversees around 120 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) in assets at E Fund Management, an established Chinese asset management firm. Zhang’s followers, who label themselves “iKun,” (“i” is a homophone for the Chinese word love), have also created accounts on Weibo posing as his “global fan clubs.” “Kun Kun, I would like to accompany you for many, many years,” a follower wrote. “Let’s witness both the bull and bear markets, but still return with young hearts.”
The accusations of sanctions busting against Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou have been dismissed by her lawyers as “fiction” at the start of a legal hearing in Canada in which she is fighting extradition to the United States.
Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the technology conglomerate, and eldest daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei, is wanted by US authorities for alleged fraud in trying to circumvent Washington’s sanctions against Iran.
She made no comment as she rushed past protesters waving “Free Meng” and “Trump stop bullying us” placards outside the special court in Vanouver on Monday.
Inside, she sat following the proceedings with the help of an interpreter as her attorneys used their opening remarks to reject the fraud charges against her on the basis that her alleged conduct was not illegal at the time in Canada.
Her defense lawyer, Richard Peck, told the court that the central issue was “double criminality”, the legal concept that Meng’s extradition to the US requires that her alleged actions also be considered a crime in Canada.
In order to secure her freedom, Meng must convince Judge Heather Holmes that the US charges would not stand up in Canada and are politically motivated.
The US alleges Meng lied to HSBC bank about Huawei’s relationship with its Iran-based affiliate Skycom, putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions against Tehran.
Meng has denied the allegations in a case that has severely strained China-Canada relations. She has been out on bail, living in one of her two Vancouver mansions for the past year.
Lawyers for Canada’s attorney general, on behalf of the US justice department, will justify extradition by arguing that the US accusations against Meng would be considered a crime in Canada if they had occurred in the country.
“The US has cast [Meng’s] alleged behaviour as a fraud against a bank. This is an artifice,” Peck told the court.
“This case is founded on allegations of breach of US sanctions, which Canada has repudiated,” he said, adding that Canada was effectively being asked “to enforce US sanctions.”
Earlier, China’s foreign ministry called Meng’s extradition case a “grave political incident” and urged Ottawa to release the Huawei executive in order to normalize relations.
Canada’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, responded that Ottawa “honours its extradition treaty commitments” and would not interfere in the case.
In a statement, Huawei said that it trusted Canada’s judicial system and believed Meng will be found innocent.
Meng’s arrest during a stopover of a Hong Kong-to-Mexico flight in December 2018 put the 47-year-old at the centre of the US and China’s battle over the technology giant’s growing global reach.
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