Beijing claims victory over return of Huawei executive

In the absence of Chinese state media, there was any mention of the release of two Canadian nationals by Chinese authorities within minutes of Ms Meng boarding her plane.

Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat, and businessman Michael Spavor were detained by Chinese authorities in December 2018, the same day Ms Meng was arrested in Vancouver over an extradition request from the US. The men were accused of espionage and arrested. In detention, largely cut off from the outside world, which was widely seen as retaliation for Ms Meng’s arrest.

Ms. Kovrig and Spavor were on their way home to Canada after Canadian officials announced on Friday that the US had disclosed on Friday that it had asked Ms. Meng to drop wire and bank-fraud charges in exchange for admitting other wrongdoing. had made an agreement with.

While the media outside China analyzed the timing of Canadians’ release in relation to Ms. Meng, the Chinese media almost completely ignored it, instead casting Ms. Meng’s release as a product of heroism. , although unspecified, the effort on behalf of the Communist Party.

The party’s leading newspaper People’s Daily and state broadcaster China Central Television both captured Ms Meng’s return to tout the party’s determination to protect the rights of its citizens abroad. The Communist Party’s anti-corruption body drew parallels with the government evacuation of Chinese citizens from dangerous situations in Yemen and Afghanistan.

“The Great Communist Party of China has always been the backbone of the Chinese people,” the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission said on its website.

The propaganda push comes as China pursues a more confrontational approach in its disagreements with the US and other Western nations, setting aside its previous preference for deemed diplomacy in favor of an aggressive “wolf warrior” ethos. Foreign ministry officials say the change is being prompted by pressure to keep pace with leader Xi Jinping’s demands and the growing nationalist tone of online Chinese public opinion.

Highlighting Ms Meng’s release, without acknowledging the steps China has taken to get her back, Chinese leaders are trying to preserve the idea that they are trying to protect Western powers by presenting their way through contentious issues. According to Victor Shih, a Chinese political scholar at the University of California, San Diego.

“The Chinese government most wanted to create the impression that it was China’s power and smart policies that led to its release, not China’s willingness to make concessions,” Mr Shih said. “For the general population, it’s probably quite successful.”

One of the few Chinese outlets to report on the Canadian men’s release was the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, which quoted an unnamed government department on Sunday as saying both men had been let go for medical reasons. In a separate English report, the newspaper also denied allegations that Beijing was involved in “hostage diplomacy”, but did not provide any details about the state of the men’s health.

A scattered number of Internet users questioned why the men were allowed to leave the country, as both were accused of espionage. Mr Spavor was found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in prison in a verdict last month, while Mr Kovrig was still awaiting a verdict.

Human rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan wrote in a widely read post on the popular message, “Whether or not the cases of these two Canadians were linked to the case of Meng Wanzhou, China should have a legal basis to allow them to return home.” ” App WeChat. The post was later taken down.

On Weibo platforms such as Twitter, several others said they saw Canadians as bargaining chips and approved of them being exchanged for Ms. Meng. One user wrote, ‘It has to be said that we are politically smart.

However, the overwhelming majority of commentators chided state media in portraying China as winning a war of will with Canada and the US, decorating their posts with Chinese flags, red roses and raised emoticons.

“The Chinese side will never accept political coercion of any kind. It will never allow Chinese citizens to become victims of political persecution in other countries,” read a comment that garnered thousands of likes on Weibo’s tightly controlled platform.

CCTV noted that viewers of its livestream showed Ms Meng descending through the cabin door of a government-chartered Air China airplane, which exceeded the population of the United States and Canada.

“Welcome to the hero is in line with the legend of ‘[The West is] Trying to stop us because we’re getting stronger,” said Jude Blanchett, a China scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Xi thinks China is so strong that it doesn’t need to heed Western sentiments.” and sensitivity.”

Much of the social-media discussion centered on a speech Ms Meng gave in front of a crowd of flag-waving diplomats and Huawei employees after landing in Shenzhen. “If there is a color of trust, that China must be red,” she said in a line that was widely quoted on the Chinese Internet.

The speech would add to Western perceptions of closer ties between the Chinese Communist Party and Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment, despite the company’s insistence that it operates independently of Beijing, scholars said.

“What Beijing is missing is that it erodes its global reputation,” said Mr. Blanchett.

This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed