(Corrects Ren Zhengfei's age to 76 from 74 in 19th paragraph)
By Moira Warburton
VANCOUVER, Sept 24 (Reuters) - After being stuck for nearly
three years, largely confined to her multi-million-dollar
Canadian house in a sought-after neighborhood in Vancouver,
Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou looks set to return
home to China https://www.reuters.com/technology/huawei-cfo-meng-appear-court-expected-reach-agreement-with-us-source-2021-09-24.
Like many top Chinese executives, Meng is a mysterious
figure even in her home country, but the 49-year-old CFO of
Huawei Technologies had been widely tipped to one day take the
helm of the tech giant her father founded.
Meng was detained in December 2018 at Vancouver
International Airport on a U.S. warrant charging her with bank
fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC Holdings about
Huawei's business dealings in Iran.
On Friday, Meng reached an agreement with U.S. prosecutors
to resolve the bank fraud case against her.
Under the deal, Meng will be released on personal
recognizance bond, and the United States plans to drop its
extradition request to Canada, which could pave the way for her
to fly back to China.
Usually expressionless in public appearances since her
arrest, Meng smiled broadly when she left her house on Friday to
attend a court hearing conducted virtually between Vancouver and
Brooklyn, New York, on her agreement with the United States.
A final decision about when Meng will be free to leave
Canada was expected to be known after a separate Canadian court
proceeding in Vancouver later on Friday.
Shortly after Meng's arrest, China detained two Canadians,
sentencing one this month to 11 years in prison for espionage,
in a move Canadians assailed as retaliation.
Beijing has denied any connection between the arrests and
Meng's case.
The detention of Meng, who takes her family name from her
mother and has also used the English first names "Cathy" and
"Sabrina," once again threw the spotlight on Huawei at a time of
heightened global concerns over electronic security.
In dozens of court appearances over close to three years of
hearings, Meng remained composed while her lawyers portrayed her
as an innocent bystander caught up in a trade war between the
United States and China. Canadian lawyers argued she was
responsible for misleading HSBC and that any nuances of the case
should be argued in a U.S. court.
For close to three years, Meng has been under loose house
arrest in Vancouver. Under her bail terms, she has been
permitted to roam the city during the day and return at night to
her house in Shaughnessy, an upscale neighborhood in the Pacific
coastal city. She is monitored 24/7 by private security, which
she pays for as part of her plea deal.
Her husband, Liu Xiaozong, and the son and daughter they
have together have been able to visit her during the pandemic.
Meng has passed the time with oil painting, reading and work,
according to an open letter to Huawei employees she wrote on the
first anniversary of her arrest.
According to Huawei's website, Meng joined the company in
1993, obtained a master's degree from Huazhong University of
Science and Technology in 1998, and rose through the ranks over
the years, mostly holding financial roles.
She has held the positions of director of the international
accounting department, CFO of Huawei Hong Kong, and president of
the accounting management department, according to the website.
In her first media appearance before the Chinese press in
2013, Meng said she had first joined the company as a secretary
"whose job was just to take calls."
In 2011 she was first named as a board member. Company
insiders describe her as capable and hardworking.
While her brother, Meng Ping, as well as her father's
younger brother and his current wife all work at Huawei and
related companies, none has held such senior management roles.
Meng is widely seen by Huawei insiders as the likely
successor to Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei. Ren, 76, founded the
Chinese telecommunications company in 1988 and, like his elder
daughter Meng, has largely kept a low profile.
Much of Huawei's scrutiny stems from Ren's background with
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), where he worked as a
civilian engineer for nearly a decade until his departure in
1983, after helping to build its communications network.
Officials in some governments, particularly the United
States, have voiced concern that his company is close to the
Chinese military and government.
Huawei has repeatedly insisted Beijing has no influence over
it.
At the time of Meng's arrest, Huawei's revenue was split
equally between domestic and international revenue, half of
which came from supplying equipment to telecoms carriers around
the world.
But since then Western countries have distanced themselves
from the Chinese tech giant. In 2019 Huawei was put on an export
blacklist by then-U.S. President Donald Trump and barred from
accessing critical technology of U.S. origin, affecting its
ability to design its own chips and source components from
outside vendors.
The ban put Huawei's handset business under immense
pressure, with the company selling off its budget smartphone
unit to a consortium of agents and dealers in November 2020 to
keep it alive.
The company's consumer sales now make up over half of its
business, with 66% of revenue coming from China, according to
its 2020 annual report.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Editing by Denny
Thomas and Howard Goller)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)