On December 6, TNB reported on the story about the Chinese telecom CFO of Huawei Technologies Meng Wanzhou who was arrested in Canada at the request of the U.S.
Meng Wanzhou (also known by her Anglicized name of Sabrina Meng), the CFO of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, was arrested in Vancouver on Saturday. The arrest was made during a change of flights.
For further background TNB reading on Meng’s arrest, see here, here, and here.
In an CNBC interview that aired Monday, now the founder and CEO of Huawei, and Meng Wanzhou’s father, Ren Zhengfei speaks about his daughter, saying her arrest “will be good for her.”
The founder and CEO of Chinese tech giant Huawei said he believes the arrest of his daughter, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, will “make her stronger” since she has faced very little hardship in life.
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Ren, who is known for using military allusions during speeches, asked an aide to hand him a Huawei phone. It held an image of a damaged — but still airborne — Ilyushin Il-2, a Soviet aircraft from World War II. He used it as a metaphor for his daughter.“Meng is now in a similar situation. She will be a hero if she makes it back to us. I think that is how this story is likely to end,” Ren said.
The Huawei boss said the experience will make his daughter stronger.
“I think my children have grown up without experiencing much hardship. Struggling a bit can be good for them. Cuts and bruises toughen her up, and even since ancient times, heroes were born of hardship. I think this challenge will be good for my daughter,” Ren said.
“These difficulties will make her stronger and prepare her for even greater things ahead. So I’ll let her face what she is facing,” he added.
Asked if his daughter is a “hostage” in the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, Ren said: “Maybe.”
Ren told CNBC he has not communicated with Trump about his daughter after being asked about Trump’s assertion in early December he would intervene when he said, “If I think it’s good for the country, if I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made — which is a very important thing — what’s good for national security — I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary.”
“I don’t know. President Trump hasn’t shared his thoughts with me,” Ren said.
Ren said he does speak to his daughter on the phone “every now and then.”
“We have calls quite often, talking about family,” he said. “We don’t talk about anything else, because we know that our communication is being monitored. What else can we talk about? Nothing but life.”