China’s fight to protect a ‘princeling’
In a nation where politics and business mix freely, Meng is among elite
Three months ago, few people outside of China knew who Meng Wanzhou was.
For many, the Huawei executive’s arrest at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1 was their first glimpse of the woman now at the centre of a bitter diplomatic dispute between Canada and China. But Meng comes from a powerhouse family in China, one that holds significant influence in both the political and business world.
Meng’s father is billionaire entrepreneur Ren Zhengfei, who is a member of China’s revolutionary cohort — the generation that ushered China through its dramatic rise to power. Ren served in the Engineering Corps of the People’s Liberation Army and joined the Chinese Community Party before founding the telecommunications company Huawei in 1987.
Meng is also connected to the Chinese government on her mother’s side. Her mother, Meng Jun, is the daughter of the former deputy governor of Sichuan province.
Since its founding, Huawei has grown into one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world, one of a handful capable of developing and manufacturing 5G network technologies — viewed as the next major evolution of wireless systems.
In her early 20s, Meng started working as a secretary in her father’s company. She rose through the ranks quickly as the company expanded. By 2011, Huawei was introducing her at public events as its chief financial officer.
Being both a top-level executive at Huawei and the daughter of one of China’s entrepreneurial heroes has meant Meng is treated like a “princeling” in China, said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.
Huawei “has been hailed as a company that is supposed to, in part, represent something about China’s dramatic rise,” he told the Star.
Strictly speaking, the term “princeling” is reserved for the sons of top government leaders. But in China, business and politics mix freely — and Meng is clearly part of that elite inner circle, Wasserstrom said.
The term princeling “(represents) this idea of an aristocratic group of special privilege,” he said. “And then you have, in this case, the daughter of the founder of Huawei and a woman who is high ranking within the company as well.”
It is difficult to find an exact Western equivalent, said Wasserstrom, though he noted that even a distant member of the British Royal family would attain a significant amount of privilege — much like Meng does in China.
There is significant overlap between the world of elite Communist Party politicians and the world of China’s elite company bureaucracy, said Wasserstrom. Meng holds at least one public affairs passport — a document that most countries reserve for diplomats and government officials.
An enraged Beijing reacted swiftly after Meng was arrested at the behest of American authorities, who argue she made fraudulent statements in order to hide Huawei’s violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran. The United States government has filed 23 criminal charges against Huawei and Meng herself. None of the charges have been proven in court; Meng’s lawyers have denounced her arrest as politically motivated.
Meng’s arrest would have been a shock to China’s inner circle, said Kevin Carrico, a se- nior lecturer in Chinese studies at Monash University in Australia.
“As long as these people stay on the right side of the PRC (People’s Republic of China) politics, they’re largely confident that they operate beyond the law, beyond any accountability,” Carrico said in an interview.
Less than two weeks later, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians, diplomat-onleave Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, in a move Western experts have argued can only be viewed as retaliatory in nature. A third Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, was sentenced to death after a one-day retrial on Jan. 14.
On March 1, Ottawa formally allowed extradition proceedings for Meng to move forward. That same day, Meng launched a civil lawsuit against the Canada Border Services Agency, the RCMP and the Canadian government, alleging they violated her rights during the course of her arrest. Meanwhile, in Huawei’s Shenzhen headquarters this week, visitors found paper coffee cups bearing a scarlet-hued shoreline at sunset and the slogan: “The lighthouse is waiting. Wanzhou please come home.”
The cups play on Meng’s Chinese first name, which can also mean “late-arriving boat.”
But Meng is required by her bail conditions to stay in Vancouver throughout the extradition proceedings, which could take months or even years.