Source: World Wide Web
After reaching an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was released on Friday local time and returned to China by plane later in the day. According to the agreement between Huawei and the US Department of Justice, Meng Wanzhou did not plead guilty. A number of experts told the Global Times on the 25th that this is a breakthrough in the extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, which is more than 1,000 days, which fully demonstrates that the Chinese government is willing and capable of protecting the interests of its enterprises and citizens overseas. Reaching a settlement in Meng Wanzhou's case may help ease the current tense Sino-US relations and Sino-Canadian relations.
On September 24, 2021, local time, in Vancouver, Canada, Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou read a statement outside the court. (People's Vision)
Combining multiple media reports, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday that it had reached a suspension of prosecution agreement with Meng Wanzhou. Meng Wanzhou appeared in court through video in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on the afternoon of the 24th local time, and pleaded not guilty to a number of bank fraud allegations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kessler told the judge at the hearing that U.S. federal prosecutors and Meng Wanzhou reached a stay of prosecution. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. government will drop charges against her on December 1, 2022, when the suspension period ends. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice withdrew its request to extradite Ms. Meng from Canada to the United States. On the same day, a Canadian judge signed Meng Wanzhou's release order, revoking the bail conditions. After nearly three years of home imprisonment, Ms. Meng was finally allowed to return to China.
Speaking to the public after the hearing, Meng Wanzhou said, "In the past three years, my life has been turned upside down" and "As a mother, a wife, this is a destructive period for me... But I believe there is a silver lining for every dark cloud. It was truly a precious experience in my life. I will never forget the good wishes I received from people all over the world. ”
According to a statement issued by William Taylor, one of the lawyers representing Meng Wanzhou, Meng Wanzhou will not be further prosecuted in the United States. "She didn't plead guilty. We fully look forward to the charges being dropped in 14 months. Now she is free to go home and reunite with her family. He said so.
On the 25th, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in response to an inquiry that China's position on the Meng Wanzhou incident is consistent and clear, "Facts have long been fully proved that this is a political persecution incident against Chinese citizens, with the purpose of suppressing China's high-tech enterprises." The allegations of Ms. Meng's alleged 'fraud' are pure fabrications. Even HSBC, which was accused of being a 'victim' by the US side, issued documents sufficient to prove Ms. Meng's innocence. What the United States and Canada have done is typical of arbitrary detention. ”
Compared with the former French Alstom executive Frederick Pieruzzi who was detained in the United States for 5 years and imprisoned for 25 months, and Alstom paid a high fine and was forced to sell its core business to the United States General Motors, why was Meng Wanzhou able to regain his freedom by pleading guilty?
Lu Xiang, an expert on American affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed the Global Times reporter on the 25th and believed that there are multiple factors behind the resolution of Meng Wanzhou's case. Among them, the Chinese government's extensive efforts to protect Meng Wanzhou's legal rights are particularly important. The Meng Wanzhou case has always been a "political case", and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, relevant embassies and consulates abroad, and other relevant departments and teams have persevered and made a lot of efforts for the Meng Wanzhou case.
He also said that in addition, the US government has continuously assessed the balance of strength between China and the United States in the past few months, and adjusted the expectations of Sino-US relations accordingly, as well as Canada's eagerness to "unwind", which has also promoted the settlement of this case.
The Meng Wanzhou case has basically come to an end, what kind of impact will it have on Sino-US relations, which are currently facing many complicated and intractable contradictions? Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs College, told the Global Times reporter on the 25th that the "withdrawal of the extradition request for Meng Wanzhou" is the content of the two lists of corrections and concerns that China has previously proposed to the United States, which shows that the "two lists" proposed by China have become a strong impetus for the Chinese government to Sino-US relations, urging the United States to make correct feedback and responses.
On July 26 this year, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng held talks with U.S. State Executive Deputy Secretary of State Sherman in Tianjin. At the briefing held after the talks, Xie Feng said that China has put forward two lists to the US side, one is a list of key cases of concern to the US side, one is a list of key cases of concern to the US side. Xie Feng also clearly explained the specific contents of the two lists. The first list includes urging the United States to end visa restrictions against China, unjustified sanctions against Chinese officials, government departments and some companies, and extradition of Ms. Meng.
"This point once again shows that in both diplomacy with the United States and in overall diplomacy, China's position of defending the rights and interests of Chinese citizens is unswerving, and it is also a victory for China's diplomacy with the United States, and a series of relevant measures are achieving results." He said, "The action of releasing Meng Wanzhou shows that if Washington has sincerity, it can and should take a bigger step in improving Sino-US relations to achieve a certain degree of china policy correction." ”
However, this US affairs expert believes that Meng Wanzhou's release has pulled out a "nail" set by the US side in Sino-US relations and released a positive signal of Sino-US interaction, but this case alone is not enough to greatly alleviate the complicated contradictions between China and the United States, and it will still be difficult to make fundamental changes in Sino-US relations in the next few years.
General analysis believes that although the Meng Wanzhou case is temporarily over, the US crackdown on China's high-tech industry around Huawei will not stop there. The release of Meng Wanzhou does not mean that the United States has made major concessions in the Sino-US game, and the competition between the two countries in many fields such as high technology will continue.
Lu Xiang believes that the settlement of this case has made the outside world look forward to a certain degree of relaxation in Sino-US relations. He expects that in the last three months of this year, China and the United States may be able to interact effectively on some substantive issues, such as substantive negotiations on the removal of trade barriers.
On the afternoon of the 25th, Huawei issued a statement saying that it looked forward to Ms. Meng's safe return to China as soon as possible and reunited with her family. Huawei will continue to assert its rights in corporate litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.