Huawei’s detained finance chief speaks out in letter to employees

Huawei’s finance chief, detained in Canada since December, has written to the company’s 188,000 employees to thank them for support she says has filled her “with power.” Meng Wanzhou is awaiting a hearing on her possible extradition to the United States, where she faces federal charges in New York for her role in an alleged scheme by Huawei to circumvent US sanctions on Iran. “Every time a court hearing has finished, I have seen Huawei employees staying up all night just to follow my case in distant time zones,” Meng wrote in a letter that was published Monday on the company’s internal online forum. “This has brought me to tears.” A translated version of the letter was provided to CNN Business by the company. The case against Meng was filed amid a broader campaign against the Chinese tech company by the US government, which claims Huawei’s networking equipment poses a national security threat. The company also faces charges in Seattle that it tried to steal trade secrets from T-Mobile (TMUS). Meng and the company have pleaded not guilty across the board. Meng said in her letter that she had been encouraged by messages of support posted in the Huawei forum, and the sight of former employees lining up outside the court in Vancouver. She was released on $7.5 million bail nearly two weeks after her arrest. She agreed to surrender her passports, live in one of two homes she owns in the city, pay for an around-the-clock security detail and wear a GPS ankle bracelet. “Despite being physically restricted to a very limited space during my time in Vancouver, my inner self has never felt so colorful and vast,” Meng said in the letter Monday. Meng’s high-profile detention has led to a diplomatic standoff between Canada, China and the United States, and complicated trade talks between Washington and Beijing, which has called for her release. Huawei, which is world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, has shown a growing willingness to go on the offensive. Last week, the company decried “political factors at play during the extradition process,” which it said could infringe on Meng’s “legitimate rights.” Meng filed a civil lawsuit in March accusing Canadian authorities of violating her rights when they first detained her. She’s expected to appear in Canadian court again in September.