“Nice to see you”: six months after her triumphant return from Canada, Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, made her first major media appearance in China on Monday since her release.
The late 2018 arrest in Vancouver of the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecom juggernaut marked the start of a major diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Ottawa, with the parallel detention in China of two Canadians.
After nearly three years of proceedings, Meng Wanzhou was finally released at the end of September 2021 and returned to China.
Apart from a short statement upon his arrival on Chinese soil, Mme Meng had never spoken publicly since.
On Monday, from Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, the chief financial officer commented on the company’s annual results, placed on the American blacklist by the Trump government.
Despite the sanctions, the telecom giant reported record profit for 2021, up 76% year on year to 113.7 billion yuan (C$22.3 billion).
The turnover is however a decline of 28.5%, to 636.8 billion yuan (125.1 billion dollars).
Despite pressure from Washington, “our ability to make profits and generate cash flow is increasing,” said Meng Wanzhou.
Now, “we are better able to cope with uncertainty,” she said in front of a handful of journalists, gathered in a room reminiscent of the splendor of a European palace.
“Uncertainty”
Huawei did not release details of the number of cellphones it sold last year.
But its sales of so-called “consumer” products, which include smart telephones in particular, experienced a decline of almost 50% in 2021.
The brand was once one of the top three smartphone makers in the world, along with Korea’s Samsung and America’s Apple.
And it briefly held the number one spot, boosted by Chinese demand and sales in emerging markets, before being hit by US sanctions.
Dressed in a black dress with a butterfly-shaped brooch, Ms. Meng did not explicitly mention her setbacks in Canada. But she said she was “delighted” to be present again for the group’s results, “four years after” her last participation.
On December 1, 2018, during a stopover at Vancouver airport, Huawei’s chief financial officer was arrested at the request of US authorities.
Meng Wanzhou was accused of lying to circumvent US sanctions against Iran. An offense punishable by more than 30 years in prison in the United States, to which she was threatened with extradition.
A few days after his arrest, China in turn arrested two Canadians and accused them of espionage, a measure then widely perceived as retaliation.
“False statements”
They were Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat once posted in Beijing, and consultant and businessman Michael Spavor, a specialist in North Korea.
Unlike the “two Michaels”, who suffered harsh conditions of detention, Meng Wanzhou was able to remain under house arrest in one of his villas in Vancouver, under electronic bracelet.
After years of detention described as “hostage diplomacy”, all were finally able to return to their country in September 2021.
This outcome was made possible by the US government, which proposed to the courts to “postpone” the proceedings against Meng Wanzhou until the end of 2022.
According to the American justice, Ms. Meng recognizes by this agreement to have made “false declarations” and “concealed the truth” on the activities of Huawei in Iran.
Following this decision, the Canadian justice closed in September the extradition procedure against Ms. Meng, which allowed her to regain her freedom.
If the US authorities’ legal settlement with Meng Wanzhou is not challenged or terminated by December 1, 2022, the charges against her will be permanently dropped.