Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s tear-soaked message: ‘This moment I’m soaring over the Arctic … my motherland is within reach’
- As she flew towards home, Meng wrote on WeChat about her ordeal, and emerging stronger from her marathon battle to avoid extradition to the US
- During the battle, she had become a cipher for the fraught state of China’s relations with the West
But that was now behind her.
Eventually she posted the long and poetically worded message on WeChat.
She described how she sobbed uncontrollably as she headed for home, and heaped praise on the Chinese government.
“Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, our motherland is marching towards great prosperity. Without a strong native country, I would not have today’s freedom,” she said.
Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou flying back to China after striking deal with US
She talked of the hardships since her arrest, saying that at times it felt like she was in an “abyss”, tormented by sleepless nights.
But she also spoke of emerging stronger from the experience.
Meng, 49, described the blinking lights on the plane’s wings amid the darkening skies, saying they gave her an “especially warm feeling”.
“This moment I’m soaring over the Arctic, towards home, soon to fall into the mother’s embrace of my ancestral country,” she wrote. “After three years, my motherland is within reach.”
03:41
Meng Wanzhou returns to China and Canadians freed after US court reaches deal with Huawei CFO
Meng’s long ordeal had ended where it began, at Vancouver International Airport, when the Air China 777 lifted off at 4.29pm local time, carrying her home to China.
She hadn’t planned to stay long – just enough time, she hoped, to drop off some household goods at one of the two houses she owned in the Canadian city.
Instead, Meng was arrested at the airport on a US warrant, wanted for extradition to New York to face trial for fraud.
Chinese envoy speaks to Meng, urges Canada to rectify ‘serious mistake’
The ill-fated stopover would last 1,028 days, during which Meng went from being a relatively low-profile executive to a figure of global importance.
She would also become a cipher for the fraught state of China’s relations with the West.
To her supporters, she was innocence itself, prised away from her homeland and family by a US plot and Canadian complicity.
She was beloved for her calm defiance in the face of such an outrage, orchestrated by no less than former US president Donald Trump himself.
Critics variously depicted her as a liar and a spoiled princess, mocking her for the couture outfits she sometimes wore at her Vancouver extradition proceedings.
Duelling crowds of protesters gathered outside the early extradition hearings, some shouting praise and support, and others demanding Meng be immediately packed off to New York for trial.
A circus-like atmosphere developed outside the British Columbia Supreme Court; one day, a protester burned a Chinese flag before the world’s media. Another day, a group of young white protesters greeted her and waved placards to call for her release; it later emerged that they were paid to attend by an ardent supporter of Meng (some said they thought they were acting in a movie).
No crime and no punishment as Meng admits wrongdoing without guilt
The crowds dwindled as the case dragged on.
But through it all, Meng was as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa, to whom she bore a passing resemblance.
There were no outbursts of emotion or off-the-cuff comments; at best a smile or “good morning” for reporters or the courtroom sheriffs as she whisked by.
Inside court, she did not testify, and only gave short confirmatory responses to the judges’ various instructions and questions.
That made her emotional release on Friday all the more startling. As she walked out of courtroom 55, she fell into a full embrace with members of her legal and corporate entourage who swung her happily back and forth, her eyes wet with tears.
On the steps of the courthouse she spoke publicly at length for the first time in almost three years.
The crowd of reporters and protesters were back, and she struggled to be heard above the hubbub, sometimes stumbling over her softly spoken English.
She reeled off a string of thanks, to the judge “for her fairness”, to the Canadian government “for upholding the rule of law”, to the Canadian people and media, for their “tolerance”. The Chinese embassy earned her “sincere gratitude”, and her lawyers were a source of pride.
“Lastly, to my family, to my friends, to everyone, who provided care and help for me all along the way, thank you.”
“My life,” she said “has been turned upside down”.
About an hour later, Meng was striding through the airport, surrounded by a posse of guards and fellow Huawei executives.
Video posted on WeChat showed Meng in tears again as she said goodbye to a consulate staff who was a frequent companion in Vancouver.
The release of Meng has attracted overwhelming attention on Chinese social media, trending as six of the top 10 topics on Weibo.
Netizens also tracked the flight carrying Meng throughout the day. When the plane entered Chinese airspace in the evening, some netizens wrote: “It is safe now.”
Meng’s release ‘may not improve’ China’s relationship with US or Canada
Meng had once lived in Vancouver as a permanent resident; after returning to China and taking up senior roles in Huawei, she regularly visited on summer holidays.
She could be forgiven for never wanting to see the city ever again.
