China has warned some of the state-run enterprises to refrain business trips to the United States and allies, following the arrest of Huawei chief executive officer in Canada over the request of the American government.
According to news reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, during recent weeks, a regulatory body, the State-Owned Assets Supervision, and Administration Commission, which oversees more than 100 government-run companies, has told some firm to take extra precautions to protect their devices and only take company issued laptops on a trip to the US. The warning further extended to other countries in the Five Eye intelligence sharing pact: Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.
According to the outlet, the order also instructed employees to have the company verify to validate which record they should carry during their trip and secure them on a USB flash drive, two people familiar with orders said adding SASAC did not disclose how long the travel warning will apply.
The travel warning comes amid the arrest of Huawei chief executive officer (CFO) Meng Wanzhou, detained by the Canadian authority in December to extradite her to the US, on the request of the US.
The US has accused Huawei tech giant of using a shell company to sell its products and equipment in Iran.
According to Bloomberg, the Chinese government took a swipe at Canadian government on Tuesday and told reporters “it is Canada, not China, that is arbitrarily detaining foreign citizens under the guise of the law”, and further assured that “as long as foreigners including Canadians abide by the law, their freedom and safety is guaranteed”.