torsdag 7. oktober 2021

Huawei hopes US decision on Meng Wanzhou heralds new era in relations

The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei hopes that the US justice department’s decision to abandon its efforts to extradite Meng Wanzhoumay mark the starting point in a new era in relations between the company, China and the US government.

Meng, the firm’s chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, was freed last month after three years of house arrest in Canada following an agreement with the justice department to suspend fraud charges against her.

The case poisoned Beijing’s relations with Washington and Ottawa, and sources closely involved in Huawei’s three-year court battle to block her extradition regard her release as removing a roadblock in relations between the company and the US authorities, and even between China and the US. But the extent to which the Meng case can signal a wider improvement in bilateral relations is disputed. Chinese state-run news agencies have been aggressive in their commentary on her case, citing it as another sign of American decline.