Huawei leader welcomed as a "heroine" on her return to China
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou waves as she steps off the plane from Canada at Shenzhen International Airport in China on September 25, 2021. VIA REUTERS - XINHUA
Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
2 min
The plane of Huawei heiress Meng Wanzhou landed on Saturday evening in Shenzhen, in southeast China, where the headquarters of the Chinese telecommunications giant is located.
This after three years of house arrest in Canada and the abandonment by the American justice of his request for extradition.
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From our correspondent in Beijing,
Shenzhen International Airport turned red on Saturday evening.
Red, like the dress of the daughter of the founder of Huawei when she got off the plane and like the tide of small flags waved by the welcoming committee on the tarmac.
The demonstrations are rare in the country, this one was obviously authorized, the mini crowd having been able to follow Meng Wanzhou inside the airport with the cry of "Long live China".
This return after three years of house arrest in Canada was hailed as a "
victory for the country
" by state media, which avoided going into the details of the concessions made by Ms. Meng to the American judges.
Songs of “Go China!”
among supporters of Huawei's #MengWanzhou.
Don't often see gatherings of this size being allowed to go on for long ... pic.twitter.com/MU5zpmR3WX
- Beiyi Seow (@beiyis) September 25, 2021
Meng Wanzhou owes his
release
to his lawyers who negotiated his exit against confessions of "false statements" and violation of US sanctions against Iran.
It owes it also and above all to pressure from the Chinese state.
A return followed by tens of millions of Internet users
It is also to the Chinese authorities that the financial leader of the Huawei group sent her thanks via a WeChat message sent from the Air China Boeing 777, specially chartered for her attention: “
Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, our motherland marches towards great prosperity,
wrote the daughter of the founder of Huawei.
Without the strength of my homeland, I will not be free today
”
,
she added before being moved by the flashing lights of the device in the arctic night, bringing her closer to“
the embrace of the mother country
”.
This return flight was followed live by tens of millions of Internet users - the subject coming at the top of research on the Chinese network Weibo.
It was also on the front page of all the evening newspapers, the Central Television of China (CCTV) having probably made this Saturday the longest direct in its history from the airport of the Chinese megalopolis located opposite Hong Kong.
Right now in China.
Top 1 Weibo Searches: Meng Wanzhou's flight entered Chinese airspace.
Top 2: Shenzhen lights up to welcome Meng back home.
pic.twitter.com/Ocyclzsqz9
- Zhulin Zhang (@ZhangZhulin) September 25, 2021
Meng Wanzhou greeted as "heroine", the word has been used all day by commentators.
An emotion visibly shared by the one that some commentators in Canada have nicknamed "the Mona Lisa", because of her enigmatic smile close to that of Mona Lisa and her silence during the hearings.
For the first time, Huawei's chief financial officer spoke at length in public after leaving the court, thanking "
all those who
supported her
'During her 1,028 days under
house arrest
she spent with her husband and four children at her $ 9 million Vancouver mansion where she is unlikely to return anytime soon.
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