Six months after Huawei Technologies’ Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou returned to China after being under house arrest in Canada for nearly three years, she said the Chinese telecom giant’s resolve is strong, Reuters reported Monday (March 28).
Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in 2019 at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The government alleged Huawei subsidiaries’ attempt to sell equipment to Iran was in violation of U.S. sanctions. China’s largest technology company was also accused of stealing trade secrets and committing bank fraud.
The ban hurt Huawei’s ability to design its own chips and to source components from outside vendors, crippling its smartphone businesses.
Read more: Huawei CFO Charged With Bank Fraud
In a 13-count indictment filed in Brooklyn, New York, the U.S. government charged Huawei Technologies, two affiliated companies and Meng with bank and wire fraud, as well as conspiracy in connection with business in Iran.
Meng returned to China last fall after reaching an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to end a bank fraud case.
“Over the past few years our teams have undertaken a lot of pressure, and along this process we have become more united, and our strategy has become clearer,” she told reporters in her first public appearance at a company event, per Reuters.
Asked to detail what she had been up to since she returned to work six months ago, Meng said “I’ve been learning and trying to catch up.”
Last year, Huawei revenue fell by 29% to 636.8 billion yuan ($100 billion). Profits increased by a record 76% to 113.7 billion yuan ($17.8 billion). The rise was result of the sale of its handset division and server businesses.
Meng said the revenue drop stemmed from the impact of U.S. sanctions on the smartphone business. She also noted that the pandemic, supply chain issues and little demand for 5G base stations in China contributed to the losses.
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