"China's laws allow them to keep people in detention for a long time," said Dan Harris, a founder of Harris Sliwoski, an international law firm that specializes in China. "The charges are purposefully vague as a message from China ... we can convict them on whatever it makes sense for us to convict them on so as to best influence what happens to Meng Wanzhou and to best send a message to Canada and to the rest of the world that China will act in China's own interests by crushing you, international law be damned."

Some experts say that handing over technology has effectively become a cost of doing business in China -- a market too big for most companies to ignore.

"Many Chinese companies go after technology hard and the tactics they use show up again and again, leading us to believe there is some force (the government?) teaching them how to do these things," said Dan Harris, a Seattle-based attorney who advises international companies on doing business in China.

"The thing is that the foreign companies that give up their technology usually do so at least somewhat of their own volition," he told CNNMoney. "Yes, maybe they need to do so to get into China, but they also have the choice not to go into China, right?"