Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou has reached an agreement with US prosecutors to end the bank fraud case against her, officials said. The move allowed her to leave Canada, relieving a point of tension between China and the United States.
A person familiar with the matter said Meng was flying back to China on Friday night.
Canadian broadcast footage also showed Meng boarding a flight to the city of Shenzhen shortly after she was granted release in a Vancouver court hearing.
About two hours after the court’s decision, Meng boarded an unscheduled Air China 777 flight that departed Vancouver International Airport at 4.29pm local time.
China has yet to issue an official statement on Meng’s release. But Lijian Zhao, a senior Foreign Ministry spokesman, wrote in one of his social media accounts saying, “Welcome home.”
The state-backed Global Times also welcomed Meng’s release, while remaining critical of Canada with one analyst accusing it of being a “willing accomplice” of the United States.
The years-long extradition drama has been a central source of discord in increasingly rocky ties between Beijing and Washington, with Chinese officials signaling that the case needed to be dropped to help end a diplomatic stalemate between the world’s top two powers.
The deal also opens US President Joe Biden up to criticism from China hawks in Washington who argue his administration is capitulating to China and one of its top companies at the centre of a global technology rivalry between the two countries.
Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a US warrant, and was indicted on bank and wire fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC in 2013 about the telecommunications equipment giant’s business dealings in Iran.
Her arrest sparked a diplomatic storm and drew Canada into the fray when China arrested two Canadians, a businessman and a former diplomat, shortly after Meng was taken into custody.
