A year since the arrest of Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou, US-China relations remain frayed and strained
- US sanctions on Huawei are not expected to ease off amid the slow progress in hammering out an interim trade deal with China
- The arrest proved to be the flashpoint that generated wide international attention to the US-China tech war
When Meng Wanzhou stepped off a Cathay Pacific plane in chilly Vancouver on December 1 last year, little did she know that she was about to become a new pawn in a widening US-China trade war.
Having originally boarded in Hong Kong, Meng – chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies and company founder Ren Zhengfei’s daughter – was switching flights on her way to sunnier climes in Mexico and thought her stop in the coastal Canadian city would only be a short one.
Three hours later, after being detained and interrogated by Canadian immigration officials over her role at Huawei and having had her luggage searched, Meng found herself arrested at the request of Washington.
“That was the point when the so-called tech war between the US and China received wide international attention,” said Paul Haswell, a partner who advises technology companies at international law firm Pinsent Masons. “I think Meng’s arrest was the first time that the US was seen to take such a strong approach [against a major Chinese tech firm].”
