The View | Why Huawei should lie low and plan a US listing instead of going on the offensive

The pot of US allegations, ranging from intellectual property theft to close ties to the Chinese government, was already simmering when Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of its founder, was arrested in Canada on fraud allegations at the behest of the US. This ignited an explosive row which has tarnished the company’s reputation in many markets.

Huawei’s recovery strategy has been to do what it would have done in China – be aggressive and run the news agenda. This doesn’t work overseas. Instead, it has provided ammunition to US efforts to pressure potential customers against using Huawei’s 5G telecommunications network equipment.

Lesson one: private companies should not get their governments involved in matters such as these. Meng’s detention quickly became an international diplomatic storm. Unless Meng has some damaging evidence that could be revealed in court, the highly regimented, precedent-based Western legal process would almost certainly have led to her quiet release. Now, she has to publicly go through the due process of the law.

Worse happened. Two Canadian citizens were detained in China. No official links have been made with Meng’s arrest but the men have not been charged with any crime even 10 weeks after their detention.