‘Finally, I am home’: Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou lands in China to hero’s welcome

State media has portrayed her return as a sign of a strong, resilient country and a diplomatic victory for Beijing

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says actions of the United States and Canada regarding Meng were ‘typical arbitrary detentions’

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A teary-eyed Meng Wanzhou arrives back in Shenzhen on Saturday evening. Photo: CCTV

Published: 10:13pm, 25 Sep 2021Updated: 5:52am, 25 Dec 2021

Huawei Technologies’ executive Meng Wanzhou landed in China on Saturday evening, after nearly three years under house arrest in Canada, to a hero’s welcome cheered by supporters in a homecoming state media portrayed as a sign of a strong country and a diplomatic coup for Beijing.

State broadcaster CCTV showed a teary-eyed Meng, wearing a red wraparound dress, receiving a bouquet of roses and being greeted by an assembled crowd waving mini national flags on the tarmac of the international airport of Shenzhen, Huawei’s base, after her flight landed at 9.50pm.

Meng waved to the 100-strong crowd and acknowledged the shouts of “Welcome home”. She then gave a brief speech, addressing Zhang Xin, deputy provincial governor of Guangdong, and Shenzhen mayor Qin Weizhong, and beginning by saying: “Finally, I am home.”

Meng Wanzhou’s first words were: ‘Finally, I am home.’ Photo: CCTV

Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer and executive director, reached a deal on Friday with prosecutors in New York that effectively resolved a US fraud case that had kept her in legal limbo in Vancouver since late 2018 as she fought extradition to the United States. The case involved HSBC and US sanctions against Iran.

She mentioned President Xi Jinping twice in her speech on the airport tarmac, referring to him as Chairman Xi.