Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou arrived at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport after a 13-hour flight from Vancouver, Canada. Here is the touching moment of her return.

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou expressed gratitude to everyone who was concerned about her after landing at Bao'an International Airport in south China's Shenzhen on Saturday night.

Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou expressed gratitude to everyone who was concerned about her after landing at Bao'an International Airport in Shenzhen, south of China, on Saturday night.

"Finally, I'm home," Meng said in front of people who came to the airport to welcome her. She also extended well wishes to her home country ahead of the National Day, which falls on October 1.

"President Xi cares about the safety of every Chinese citizen," she said. "He has borne in mind my case. I'm deeply moved," Meng added.

She also thanked all the relevant departments for their support. "They have firmly safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens," Meng said.

Meng flew from Vancouver, Canada, where she had been detained since December 2018 at the request of U.S. authorities. U.S. prosecutors on Friday agreed to drop their extradition proceedings against her.

During her nearly three years of detention in Canada, Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou says she experienced many hardships but managed to overcome them all. 

The charter flight carrying Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou landed in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, on Saturday night.

A charter plane carrying Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is expected to land at Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport at around 9:49 p.m. Beijing Time. 

Meng is expected to comment on her case at the airport.

After nearly three years of detention in Canada, Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou is flying from Vancouver back to China on a charter flight arranged by the Chinese government. She is expected to arrive in Shenzhen on Saturday night. Locals have been waiting for Meng at the airport to welcome her home.

The charges against Meng Wanzhou were purely fabricated and her detention was "arbitrary," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Saturday.

After the Chinese government's unremitting efforts, Meng, chief financial officer of Huawei, left Canada on Friday local time on a charter flight organized by the Chinese government. She will soon reunite with her family in China.

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In response to a media question, Hua in a statement said that the Chinese side's position on Meng's case has been consistent and clear.

"Facts have already proven that this is a political persecution against a Chinese citizen and its aim is to suppress Chinese high-tech companies," according to the statement.

The charges of "fraud" against Meng were nothing but fabrication, and even the HSBC, the "victim" designated by the U.S. side, has released documents that can prove her innocence, the spokesperson stressed. 

Meng was arrested in December 2018 when she was at Vancouver International Airport en route to Mexico. Canadian police arrested her at the request of the U.S. 

What the U.S. and Canada had done is a typical case of arbitrary detention, Hua noted.

The plane carrying Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou has entered China's airspace.

The plane carrying Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is expected to land in Shenzhen's Bao'an International Airport, south China's Guangdong Province, at 21:50 on Saturday, according to arrival information at the airport. 

Chinese telecom giant Huawei said Saturday it will "defend itself" against legal claims that it flouted U.S. sanctions after officials dropped fraud charges against top executive Meng Wanzhou and ended a three-year standoff. 

"Huawei will continue to defend itself against the allegations in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York," the company said in a statement as Meng flew back to China.

"We look forward to Ms Meng returning home safely and reuniting with her family as soon as possible," the company added.

On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said Meng "has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution" in entering into a deferred prosecution agreement.

Meng was detained in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on a U.S. warrant charging her with bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC Holdings about Huawei's business dealings in Iran. After being stuck in Vancouver, Canada, for nearly three years, Meng was ruled free to leave the country on Friday. 

According to a statement by William Taylor III, one of Meng's lawyers, Meng and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached a deferred prosecution agreement and it has been approved by Judge Donnelly. 

Under the terms of this agreement, Meng will not be prosecuted further in the United States, and the extradition proceedings in Canada will be terminated, the statement said. 

"She has not pleaded guilty and we fully expect the indictment will be dismissed with prejudice after 14 months," it said. 

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The family of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou awaits her return home and feel proud of her, Meng's younger sister said on Saturday via social media. 

Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The daily column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events. 

The detention on Meng Wanzhou never should have happened – and a similar situation should never happen again.

International arrest warrants should be used for criminals, not for pawns in the political game of thrones. Business or even international ties of any sort between nations cannot function if business executives are targets for bogus charges to help pursue political goals.

The political nature of Meng's arrest was clear from the beginning. This could be seen from the flimsy nature of the charges, Meng's symbolic importance to China, and the context of the fraught political relations between the U.S. and China at that time. Then U.S. President Donald Trump made explicitly clear the political nature of the charges on December 11, 2018, shortly after Meng's arrest.

Speaking about the nascent trade war between China and the U.S., Trump told Reuters he would drop charges against Meng if China made trade concessions. "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," he said.

These comments outraged Canadians, who realized they had been duped into getting involved in a political feud under a legal pretext, and left no doubt Meng's arrest was political in nature. In the last few years, the United States has suddenly realized China is a rising power with an economy that will dwarf America over the next few decades. And instead of dealing with China's rise in a calm manner, it has panicked, flailing and thrashing like a drowning man.

It has tried to slow China's rise with every tool it could think of, including accusing China of genocide, fomenting chaos in its regions and inciting separatist movements. And yes, it was behind detaining Meng, a Chinese executive who "happens" to run one of China's largest and most advanced technological companies.

But almost all of these measures, including the arrest of Meng, have backfired. For example, the U.S. rush to build the "AUKUS" defense alliance has perhaps permanently damaged NATO, and yet again undermined global confidence in U.S. reliability as a partner. The false U.S. claims of genocide in Xinjiang and a lab virus leak in Wuhan – forcefully made but ultimately shown to be groundless – undermines confidence in the truth of any claims the U.S. makes. Combined with the fact-free claims of weapons of mass destruction ahead of the Iraq war, many nations are concluding nothing the U.S. says can be trusted.

The U.S. trade war against China not only hurt the U.S. economy, but threw the global trading system into chaos. And it is ending up pushing China toward greater technological self-reliance. And the U.S.-led arrest of Meng Wanzhou on what turned out to be very questionable charges infuriated Canadians and made the rest of the world realize the U.S. would stoop to any measures, including arresting business executives, to come out on top in its petty power games with China.

In the wake of the embarrassing Meng Wanzhou debacle, the U.S. should stop and take a few deep breaths. A case like Meng Wanzhou's cannot happen again. It has put fear in business executives of large companies, afraid that geopolitics could lead to them losing their freedom at any moment outside their nation's borders. Such disruption and the calculation behind it do not belong to the current free trade system.

It is a political mechanism of the past. The United States should start moving into the modern era.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou left Canada on September 24 local time, on a charter flight organized by the Chinese government.

Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, on Saturday expressed gratitude to China, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government for leading her home.

"Without a strong motherland, there would be no freedom as I am today," Meng said from the plane, which is expected to land in China soon. "I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese embassy in Canada for their consistent support," she added.

Growing up in the period of reform and opening-up, Meng said she was grateful to have witnessed and personally experienced the achievements of China and the Chinese people under the leadership of the CPC.

"All my compatriots have worked hard for decades to make our motherland prosperous and strong, and the people march towards common prosperity, which also makes great contributions to world peace and development."

"Fortunately, we were born in a peaceful era... The most valuable thing is that I was born in a great country," Meng said.

"My yearning and longing for my country ignited the fire of faith in my heart, illuminated the darkest moments of my life and led me on the long journey home," She said.

Earlier, before boarding the plane, Meng said her time in Canada over the past three years was disruptive but was also an invaluable experience.

"I will never forget all the good wishes I've received from people around the world. As the saying goes, the greater the difficulty, the greater the growth," she said.

Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport by Canadian police at the request of the United States while she was transiting to Mexico.

The court proceedings show the U.S. issued the arrest warrant and claimed that Meng misled HSBC about Huawei's business in Iran. Meng and Huawei denied the accusation.

Afterward, Meng was released on bail to house arrest in Vancouver and an extradition hearing began in a Vancouver court in January 2020. The legal proceedings ended in mid-August this year without a decision. 

The U.S. Department of Justice dropped its request for Meng's extradition on Friday. 

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Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou left Canada on Friday to return home to China.

Meng's house arrest in Canada ended on Friday after the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its request for her extradition.

She was arrested in 2018 at Vancouver International Airport at the request of the United States.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on social media that he welcomes Meng Wanzhou's return to China, on Saturday.

Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou expressed thanks to the people, media and governments of China and Canada in remarks after her house arrest in Canada ended on Friday.

Meng said her time in Canada over the past three years was disruptive but was also an invaluable experience.

"Over the past three years, my life has been turned upside down. It was a disruptive time for me as a mother, a wife and a company executive. But it really was an invaluable experience in my life," she said.

"I will never forget all the good wishes I've received from people around the world. As the saying goes, the greater the difficulty, the greater the growth."

At the end of her brief English remarks, Meng, speaking in Chinese, expressed gratitude to her home country and its people for their support and help.

(Cover: Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, smiles as she leaves her home in Vancouver, Canada, September 24, 2021. /CFP)

Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou has not pleaded guilty to fraud charges, William Taylor III, one of the lawyers representing Meng, said in a statement after Meng ended three years of house arrest in Canada.

"I'm very pleased that Sabrina Meng and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) and it has been approved by Judge Donnelly," the statement said. "Under the terms of this agreement, Ms. Meng will not be prosecuted further in the United States and the extradition proceedings in Canada will be terminated."

"She has not pleaded guilty and we fully expect the indictment will be dismissed with prejudice after fourteen months. Now, she will be free to return home to be with her family."