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On Saturday night, the southern Chinese language metropolis of Shenzhen, the place the tech big Huawei is headquartered, rolled out a crimson carpet welcome for Meng, who arrived on a flight chartered by the Chinese language authorities.
Carrying a crimson gown, Meng emerged from the aircraft and not using a face masks and waved to a crowd of greater than 100 folks waving Chinese language flags and shouting “welcome residence.”
“I am lastly again residence!” Meng mentioned in a quick speech to these assembled on the tarmac, expressing gratitude to her “nice motherland,” the ruling Communist Social gathering and, particularly, Chinese language President Xi Jinping.
“Chairman Xi cares concerning the security of each Chinese language citizen, and he additionally retains my scenario on his thoughts. I’m deeply moved.”
Meng ended her speech vowing to uphold the management of Xi and the social gathering, and pledging loyalty to her nation.
“The place there’s a Chinese language flag, there’s a beacon of religion,” she mentioned emotionally. “If religion has a colour, it should be China crimson.”
Whereas Meng had repeatedly referred to as herself an “peculiar Chinese language” within the speech, the grand reception for her was something however peculiar.
Many referred to as her a nationwide hero, and hailed her return as an emblem of China’s victory over the West.
The commentary referred to as Meng’s case an act of “political persecution” by the US to “crack down on China’s high-tech enterprises” and disrupt the nation’s progress.
“China doesn’t fire up hassle, however additionally it is not afraid of hassle,” it mentioned. “Not a single drive can shake the standing of our nice motherland. Not a single drive can cease the advancing steps of China!”
The US case in opposition to Meng centered on whether or not she had misled banking big HSBC about Huawei’s relationship with an Iranian subsidiary, Skycom, which the US alleges may have put the financial institution liable to sanctions violations.
“In getting into into the deferred prosecution settlement, Meng has taken duty for her principal position in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a world monetary establishment,” performing US Lawyer Nicole Boeckmann mentioned in an announcement Friday — which went largely unreported by Chinese language state media.
Additionally conspicuously absent was any point out of the discharge of the 2 Canadians, Kovrig and Spavor. Some social media posts about their destiny had been additionally censored in China.
The 2 Michaels landed in Calgary, Alberta, earlier than 6 a.m. Saturday native time, a few hours earlier than Meng touched down in Shenzhen. They had been welcomed on the tarmac by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Spavor, an entrepreneur with enterprise ties to North Korea, and Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat, had been detained in China in December 2018, 9 days after Meng was arrested whereas altering planes in Vancouver.
Beijing has repeatedly denied taking the 2 Canadians as political hostages, however observers and authorized consultants exterior of China say the timing of their authorized proceedings steered in any other case.
Their hearings — held individually behind closed doorways in March — had been introduced the day earlier than the primary high-level assembly between US and Chinese language officers since Joe Biden got here to workplace. And in August, simply as Meng’s extradition hearings entered their last levels in Vancouver, Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in jail for spying and illegally offering state secrets and techniques abroad. Ultimately, even their releases had been timed simply hours aside.
CNN’s Paula Newton, Steven Jiang and Clare Duffy contributed reporting.
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