China Frees Canadians After Huawei CFO Leaves, Ending Crisis

  • Meng Wanzhou resolves criminal charges with U.S. prosecutors
  • Justin Trudeau says Kovrig, Spavor are on plane back to Canada
Louis Huang of Vancouver Freedom and Democracy for China holds photos of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in 2019.Photographer: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images
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In a sudden resolution to a diplomatic crisis between the U.S., China and Canada, a top Huawei Technologies Co. executive flew home as China released two jailed Canadians.

For almost three years, Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, was under house arrest in Vancouver as she battled extradition to the U.S. on fraud charges. Across the Pacific, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor -- detained within days of Meng’s December 2018 arrest -- languished in Chinese jails, pawns caught in a geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and China.