The top-class figure for Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, received bullets sent in the mail to her home amidst Huawei's current controversy regarding tech's discriminative use against Uighur minorities.
Wanzhou received several alleged death threats while under house arrest in Vancouver, Canada, according to what her legal team told the judge last Wednesday (1/13). The Chinese government demanded Wanzhou's return following the alleged death threats despite her $7,8 million bail.
"Sometimes there were bullets inside the envelopes, so we wanted to secure that evidence as best we could," Douglas Maynard told the Supreme Court of British Columbia, citing that Wanzhou received "five or six" threatening letters, as noted by SCMP. Maynard is the president of Lions Gate Risk Management. His firm was tasked to prevent the Chinese tycoon from escaping the country.
The authorities are still unsure regarding the motives behind this threat and are yet to investigate the letters.
Long-Lasting History
Wanzhou, also known as Cathy Meng, has served as Huawei's finance chief officer (CFO) since the late 1990s. Her father, Ren Zhengfei, founded the tech giant company in Shenzhen, China, in 1987.
Canada detained Wanzhou at Vancouver International Airport in 2018 regarding the misleading case about Huawei's dealing with Iran, creating tension between China and Canada. The chief financial officer faced charges of several bank fraud cases, potentially causing HSBC to break US sanctions.
According to the BBC, Wanzhou is allowed to leave home between 6 AM and 11 PM, and she has to wear a GPS-tracking device to prevent her from escaping. She also has to pay for round-the-clock security details.
Following her arrest, the tension between China, Canada, and the US escalated after Beijing arrested two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavo, in charge of espionage. Both were a former diplomat and a business consultant, respectively. As The New York Times reported, Beijing accused the two Canadians of "illegally providing state secrets for foreign countries."
Video-Surveillance Tech
For the last couple of weeks, Huawei was thrown under the bus following reports of the tech giant's Uighur-spotting tech use. Video-surveillance research group IPVM revealed earlier this week that one of Huawei's patents has a system that "identifies people who appear to be of Uighur origin among images of pedestrians."
Huawei vehemently denies the accusation, yet last year, Huawei and Megvii, an image-surveillance specialist, reportedly tested one of the country's most extensive facial recognition software.
To put it short, the surveillance technology helps identify pedestrians' various physical features on the street, and it could potentially alert the police about Uighur minorities.
Several brand ambassadors of Huawei, including FC Barcelona's starlet and French World Cup winner Antoine Griezmann, have decided to take a stance by cutting their commercial partnership with the company.
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