Weeks before the arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in 2018, a book came out in which she wrote about the struggle to get the company’s financial records on a sound footing.
“Ten years ago, Huawei’s finance staff were criticized nonstop,” she wrote, referring to her father only by his title. “They were criticized by our CEO Mr. Ren Zhengfei, by business departments, by customers, and by employees. We were like a headless chicken, running around aimlessly.”
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In the book, “Visionaries: Huawei Stories,” other employees of the Chinese tech giant described the young and inexperienced finance team, whose alleged mishaps ranged from missed tax payments to possible accounting fraud. Meng wrote that they worked hard for years to professionalize Huawei’s management.
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“We are like a tiny sapling yearning to grow,” she wrote. “We are working hard and constantly improving.”
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She may not get another chance.
Meng’s fight against extradition to the United States on fraud charges entered its final stretch Wednesday, with a crucial court hearing beginning in Vancouver, British Columbia. The hearing could run until Aug. 20, and if the judge rules in favor of extradition, the decision on surrender will be made by Canada’s justice minister.
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The arrest of Meng, 49, in Vancouver thrust Canada into the geopolitical standoff between the United States and China. Her case could also affect the fates of two Canadian nationals who have been held in harsh detention conditions in China, in apparent retaliation.
The next weeks could determine the future of one of China’s most powerful business families. Meng has had a rocky relationship with her father, who was absent for much of her childhood and divorced her mother. But she has also been rumored as a possible successor to Ren’s business empire.
Ren has said her situation can’t be considered over the national interest.
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“I would rather withstand attacks for a couple more years and my daughter to suffer more, than let China concede something to the United States for Huawei's benefit,” he told the Associated Press in 2019.
Still, Meng’s case has been under discussion at high diplomatic levels. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi raised it with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in her visit last month.
Meng was detained at a Vancouver airport in December 2018, at the request of the United States. The U.S. Justice Department alleges that Meng misled banks about Huawei’s relationship with a subsidiary, Skycom, effectively tricking them into violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.
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Huawei’s lawyers say the case is political and based on misinformation.
“Meng Wanzhou has spent nearly 1,000 days as a pawn in a geopolitical game of chess,” said Alykhan Velshi, vice president of corporate affairs at Huawei.
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Meng was born in 1972, when Ren was still a military engineer working far from home. She was raised by her mother, whose surname she adopted.
“I wasn’t the type to play around with my children, play hide-and-seek and things like that,” Ren told CNN in 2019. “I barely took care of them.”
Ren called his young daughter “Piggy,” a nickname that resurfaced when she used it to sign an open letter to him from house arrest.
Their relationship remained cool as adults. Before her arrest, Meng and her father didn’t exchange greetings on holidays and rarely spoke by phone, Ren told Canada’s CTV National News in 2019.
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Still, she was promoted at Huawei and helped lead a revamping of the company’s accounting system. Ren has bluntly denied she could take the helm at Huawei, saying she lacks vision.
“She does not have that particular quality that is required for strong leadership, to point the way forward like a beacon,” Ren told the BBC in 2019. “She is not my successor for sure.”
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A different facet of their lives has emerged in court. Meng’s lavish lifestyle in house arrest has raised eyebrows — and drawn unfavorable comparisons to the plight of the two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, who were arrested in China in apparent retaliation.
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In January, a British Columbia court was told that Meng was spending her house arrest in a seven-bedroom mansion, that she traveled to designer stores in Vancouver to shop in private, and that she had a large Christmas dinner in apparent violation of coronavirus restrictions. Her mother, husband and children have visited her.
Kovrig and Spavor, held in cramped cells in separate prisons, have been largely cut off from sunlight, their families and the outside world since their arrest on vague charges of spying on and stealing state secrets. In the more than 960 days since they’ve been detained, they’ve had a handful of calls with their families — combined — and 25 visits each from consular officials. Kovrig has passed the time by walking in circles, according to his family.
The “two Michaels,” as they’re known in Canada, were tried separately in secret in March. Verdicts have not been announced.
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Meng, who is represented by a team of lawyers from across Canada, has been dealt several setbacks in her bid to stave off extradition.
Last year, the Supreme Court of British Columbia found that the crimes for which Meng is wanted in the United States are also crimes in Canada, satisfying a prerequisite for extradition.
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She has since been seeking to get the proceedings stayed because of an alleged “abuse of process.” Her lawyers have argued that the case is political, that her rights were violated during her arrest and that the United States’ prosecution of Meng violates international law.
On Wednesday, Mona Duckett, one of Meng’s lawyers, began laying out the last of the abuse-of-process arguments, arguing that the case should be thrown out because U.S. officials misled Canada about the evidence against Meng.
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The Chinese executive was dealt another blow last month when the court denied her request to admit evidence from HSBC, including internal bank reports and email chains between employees, that her lawyers had said would “fatally” damage the U.S. case.
The documents “would no doubt be valuable to Ms. Meng in a trial,” Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes wrote in the decision, but they “are not capable of directly impeaching the evidence” in the U.S. record of the case “in a way that could affect the issues for determination in the extradition hearing.”
If Holmes rules that there is enough evidence to commit Meng for extradition, the ultimate decision would fall to Canada’s justice minister. The vast majority of extradition requests from the United States are granted, but any decision could be tied up for years in appeals.
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In the 2018 book, Meng wrote that the finance team was becoming more proactive in addressing risks.
“In the past, we would improve only after we were aware of our weaknesses,” she wrote. “We would take up our responsibilities, and stumble our way forward into the light. Today, we have a plan, and act accordingly.”
Pei Lin Wu contributed to this report.
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