Huawei Arrest Tests China’s Leaders as Fear and Anger Grip Elite
The arrest of one of China’s leading tech executives, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, by the Canadian police for extradition to the United States has unleashed a combustible torrent of outrage and alarm among affluent and influential Chinese, posing a delicate political test for President Xi Jinping and his grip on the loyalty of the nation’s elite.
Ms. Meng is the daughter of Huawei’s legendary founder, Ren Zhengfei, who built the company after a stint in the People’s Liberation Army. That makes her corporate royalty in China — the equivalent of someone like Sheryl Sandberg (the chief operating officer of Facebook), if Ms. Sandberg were also the daughter of an American tech pioneer such as Steve Jobs.