Huawei dials up the charm as global pressure builds after arrest of CFO Meng Wanzhou

Guided tours of some of its most sensitive facilities. A private sit-down for international media with its top executive. A heartfelt personal diary describing a devastating earthquake.

In the weeks since the shock arrest of its chief financial officer, Huawei Technologies has almost become a different company.

The detention of Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Canada has shone an unprecedented spotlight on China’s largest technology company, which found itself thrust into the centre of US-Chinese tensions.

Because the US accused Meng, daughter of Huawei’s billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei, of bank fraud to violate Iranian sanctions, even its internal controls were called into question.

In response, the company amped up a charm offensive, saying it is a wrongly maligned international citizen crucial to the future of wireless communications.