'This is not rule of law': detention of Huawei workers sparks backlash
Arrests have raised questions in China
about the company’s ties to the state and the wider tech industry. By Lily Kuo
Around this time last
year, Zeng Meng, 39, was on holiday in Thailand, having dinner with his father.
Suddenly he was surrounded by Chinese police. Plainclothes officers stood on
each side of him, their hands on his shoulders, while another filmed the scene.
The officers showed
their IDs and said they had been dispatched from Shenzhen, the headquarters of
Zeng’s former employer Huawei, where he was
wanted on suspicion of violating trade secrets. Having no other choice, Zeng
went with them, accompanied by four Thai officers. Within a week, he had been
extradited to China and formally arrested.
Zeng spent the next
three months at the Shenzhen No 2 detention centre, reading or working out in
his shared 12x6-metre cell. He was not allowed to go outside. The only
television allowed was CCTV, which carried the state broadcaster. He slept on
the floor. The police urged him
to confess, but Zeng, who said he was not allowed to choose his own lawyer,
refused. The particulars of his case grew more vague as authorities changed his
charge to fraud. In March he was released on bail, which will end in March next
year....
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/23/this-is-not-rule-of-law-detention-of-huawei-workers-sparks-backlash