Huawei ‘ princess’ becomes pawn in US- China trade row

■ Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer, was held in Canada at the request of US Meng Wanzhou’s ( left) arrest follows a US probe into the company’s alleged violations of sanctions against Iran

As the daughter of the company’s founder, Meng Wanzhou was known internally as the “princess” of telecoms giant Huawei and possible heir to the throne, but now she finds herself a pawn in the US- China trade clash.

Ms Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States, which seeks to extradite her in a move that could blow tensions two ◗ between the wide open.

Her arrest follows a US probe into the company’s alleged violations of sanctions against Iran.

The affair is a major setback for a woman who had been rising through powers the company founded by her father Ren Zhengfei, sparking speculation in recent years that she would some day assume full control.

Doing so would make her one of the world’s top female corporate bosses.

Huawei is the secondlargest smartphone manufacturer in the world after Samsung Electronics, having overtaken Apple earlier this year, and is ranked 72nd on the Fortune Global 500 with revenues of nearly $ 90 billion in the most recent fiscal year.

Its officials have taken pains to stress that the company is a meritocracy, but there seems little doubt that family ties aided Ms Meng’s rise.

Ren, 74, a former People’s Liberation Army engineer, founded the company with a few thousand dollars in 1987, growing it into one of the world’s leading suppliers of hardware for telecommunications networks.

He remains Huawei’s president.

Meng has sought to stress her own “humble” beginnings, with Chinese media reporting that she once penned an internal memo claiming that her first tasks at the Shenzhen- based company involved secretarial work — answering phones and acting as a typist.