Meng Wanzhou

Early life and joining Huawei

Meng Wanzhou was born in 1972, the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei. According to her Huawei profile, she holds a master’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, joined Huawei in 1993, and served as the company’s director of international accounting, CFO of Huawei Hong Kong and president of the accounts management department. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, she held Canadian permanent residence until 2009 and owned two homes in Vancouver.

Head of Huawei’s finance system

Huawei says that from 2003 Meng led the creation of a globally unified finance organisation, processes, policies and IT platform; from 2007 to 2014 she rolled out the IFS (Integrated Financial Services) transformation worldwide; from 2014 she led the company’s data transformation and reforms of financial reporting controls, asset reconciliation, treasury and tax management; and from 2019 she drew up a blueprint for digitising finance. She went on to serve as chief financial officer and a member of the board’s standing committee.

In March 2018 Huawei announced a new board: Liang Hua succeeded Sun Yafang as chairman, Ren Zhengfei stepped down as vice-chairman, and Meng became a vice-chairman alongside Guo Ping, Xu Zhijun and Hu Houkun. According to China News Service, Huawei said she had led the standardisation and professionalisation of its finance system and would play a larger role in building its corporate functions.

Arrest in Canada and the extradition case

On 1 December 2018 Meng was arrested by Canadian police while changing planes in Vancouver, at the request of the United States; on 11 December she was released on C$10 million bail, surrendering her passport, wearing a GPS ankle monitor and observing a night curfew, and spent nearly three years at her Vancouver home awaiting the extradition proceedings while continuing to work from home. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, her lawyers argued from her first court appearance that the arrest was politically motivated and accused the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP of failing to follow proper procedures in questioning her, seizing her possessions and arresting her, but the courts dismissed all of these motions; in May 2020 the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that the double-criminality requirement for extradition could be met. In January 2019 the US Justice Department charged Huawei and Meng, alleging that in 2013 she had misrepresented Huawei’s relationship with Skycom to a senior executive of a major banking partner. China’s government called the case “political persecution of a Chinese citizen,” while Canada and the United States said they were following the law (see “The Meng Wanzhou Affair”).

On 24 September 2021 Meng entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Justice Department: she pleaded not guilty but agreed to the accuracy of a four-page statement of facts; the US withdrew its extradition request and the Canadian court ended the proceedings. She flew out of Canada that day on a Chinese government charter and arrived in Shenzhen on the evening of 25 September, telling the crowd at the airport: “If faith has a colour, it must be China red!” When the agreement expired on 1 December 2022, prosecutors moved to dismiss, citing an “absence of information that defendant Wanzhou Meng has violated any terms of the DPA,” and on 2 December Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn dismissed the indictment against her with prejudice; the case against Huawei itself continued.

After her return

After returning to China Meng remained Huawei’s vice-chairwoman and chief financial officer. Under the company’s rotating-chair system she served her first term as rotating chairwoman from 1 April to 30 September 2023, presiding over the board and its standing committee, and a second term from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025. Presenting Huawei’s 2022 annual report on 31 March 2023, she said of her new role that “we are succession of a system and an institution, never succession of an individual, but collective leadership,” and that “with the judge approving the prosecutors’ motion to dismiss, my personal case has come to a full stop.” Huawei’s website currently lists her as deputy chairwoman, rotating chairwoman and CFO.