Ottawa - The arrest of Wanzhou Meng, director of the Chinese company Huawei, at the request of the United States, is an unprecedented action and creates serious problems for the Canadian government, the press and various analysts agree Friday.

It is a surprising and unprecedented event, said Wenran Jiang, Professor at the School for Public Policy and Global Affairs at the British Columbia University.

It's striking because Wanzhou was in transit in Vancouver when she was arrested, indicating a well-coordinated Canadian and U.S. movement, he said in The Globe and Mail.

It is also unprecedented because Canada arrested a top Chinese executive in the country 'not for violating any Canadian law, but for potentially violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, which is itself very controversial', he added.

Wenran said the measure is an escalation in US policy to ban Huawei products, not only in the domestic market but also among its allies.

For its part, the Financial Post newspaper argues the arrest represents another misadventure for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's effort to establish stronger ties with Beijing.