Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada September 24

Huawei CFO strikes deal with U.S. over fraud charges, allowing her to return to China

submited by

Style Pass

2021-09-24 23:30:04

Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Taehoon Kim

Sept 24 (Reuters) - Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou has reached an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to end the bank fraud case against her, officials said on Friday, a move that allows her to leave Canada, relieving a point of tension between China and the United States.

The years-long extradition drama has been a central source of discord in increasingly rocky ties between Beijing and Washington, with Chinese officials signaling that the case needed to be dropped to help end a diplomatic stalemate between the world's top two powers.

The deal also opens U.S. President Joe Biden up to criticism from China hawks in Washington who argue his administration is capitulating to China and one of its top companies at the center of a global technology rivalry between the two countries.

Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a U.S. warrant, and was indicted on bank and wire fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC (HSBA.L) in 2013 about the telecommunications equipment giant's business dealings in Iran.