Executive of Chinese firm resolves criminal charges in deal with U.S.

A top executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies resolved criminal charges against her as part of a deal Friday with the U.S. Justice Department that paves the way for her to return to China and concludes a case that roiled relations between Washington and Beijing.

The deal with Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, calls for the Justice Department to dismiss fraud charges late next year in exchange for Meng’s accepting responsibility for misrepresenting her company’s business dealings in Iran.

The arrangement, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, resolves a yearslong legal and geopolitical tussle that involved not only the U.S. and China but also Canada, where Meng has remained since her arrest in December 2018 at Vancouver’s airport.

The deal was reached as President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have sought to minimize signs of public tension - even as the world’s two dominant economies are at odds on issues as diverse as cybersecurity, climate change, human rights and trade and tariffs. Biden said at a United Nations summit earlier this week that he had no intention of starting a “new Cold War,” while Xi told world leaders that disputes among countries “need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation.”

As part of the deal, disclosed in federal court in Brooklyn, the Justice Department agreed to dismiss the fraud charges against Meng in December 2022 — exactly four years after her arrest — provided that she complies with certain conditions, including not contesting any of the government’s factual allegations. The Justice Department also agreed to drop its request that Meng be extradited to the U.S., which she had vigorously challenged, ending a process that prosecutors said could have persisted for months.