Meng Wanzhou, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were released after years of detention as part of a so-called “hostage diplomacy”. “In the last three years my life has been turned upside down,” Meng Wanzhou, 49, nicknamed “Princess” of Huawei, who has consistently denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty in Canadian courts on Friday.

The daughter of the Huawei boss then boarded a plane to Shenzhen, regained her freedom after three years of house arrest in Vancouver and avoided extradition to the USA. She was arrested at Vancouver airport on December 1, 2018 at the request of Washington, which wanted to put her on trial, in particular, for “bank fraud”.

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Return home

From her plane, she posted a thank you message on Chinese social networks “the party and the government”. “It’s this bright Chinese red […] leads me on the long road home”, she wrote. She arrived in China on Saturday, September 25th. “I’m finally home again” Meng Wanzhou said upon his arrival in Shenzhen, according to comments from the Global timesOrgan of the Communist Party of China. “Waiting in a foreign country was very painful.”

Trudeau welcomed the Canadians

As for the “two Michaels,” as they are called in their country, it was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who announced the end of their detention to the press on Friday. “12 minutes ago, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor left Chinese airspace and headed home.”he said, without wanting to give any further details about the circumstances of their release, because “This is an operation that is currently being carried out.”

They arrived in Canada this Saturday. “They have shown incredible strength, resilience and endurance” commented Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a message on Twitter, accompanied by a photo of him greeting his two compatriots at the airport.

The “Two Michaels” were arrested in Ottawa just days after Meng Wanzhou on alleged espionage charges “Reinvented from the ground up.” Beijing, in turn, described the Meng Wanzhou case as“purely political incident”. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken quickly welcomed the Chinese authorities’ decision to release the two Canadians after their detention ” arbitrary “.

Spectacular agreement

Meng Wanzhou’s departure for China is the realization of a spectacular agreement made public on Friday by a New York court between the Justice Department and the Chinese telecommunications giant. During a public hearing in Brooklyn federal court, Justice Department representative David Kessler suggested: ” move » until 1 December 2022 the « Complaints » has been active against Meng Wanzhou since the end of 2018, particularly because of “ conspiracy » with regard to an obligation “Bank fraud”.

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Statements are considered false

The agreement was ratified and described as “ serious » from the Brooklyn Federal Court – that the Wall Street Journal was the first to reveal this – and also predicted that Washington would recommend that Ottawa do so. release » Meng Wanzhou de facto rejects every extradition request.

The American justice accused the number 2 of the Chinese telecommunications giant of having lied to a manager of the HSBC bank about the links between the Chinese group and a subsidiary called Skycom, which sold equipment to Iran, during a meeting in Hong Kong in 2013. The American justice accused the number 2 of the Chinese telecommunications giant of having lied to an HSBC bank manager about the links between the Chinese group and a subsidiary called Skycom, which sold equipment to Iran, and of having lied to an executive about American sanctions. According to the Justice Department, the Chinese finance director admitted at the time that she had done so “false statements” And “hiding the truth” to the HSBC Framework on “Huawei activities in Iran”.

Another Chinese version

If the legal agreement is not challenged or broken by December 1, 2022, the charges will be permanently dropped, according to Washington.

In China, the fact that Meng Wanzhou admitted the facts was erased from the Internet. The state news agency Xinhua said she would return to China “Thanks to the unremitting efforts of the Chinese government”while the editor-in-chief of the Landeszeitung Global times explained it “released after pleading not guilty.”

“One thorn less”

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State media did not mention the release of the two Canadians. Although the ties between Canada and China “will probably not return to what they were before,” Former Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques believes that the solution to this affair is a solution “One thorn less” in bilateral relations.

But the fact that the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor coincides with that of the Chinese diplomat “confirmed that it was hostage diplomacy,” he thinks. “I think it will probably teach China the wrong lesson.” adds Lynette Ong, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto: “This hostage diplomacy works.”