Huawei Faces Fresh Problems within China by Arrest of Employee

China’s Huawei is invoking the ire of its social media when details poured in about an employee’s plight. The former employee was wrongly accused of blackmailing the company.

Employees are outraged by the penalty issued to a former company employee Li Hongyuan, especially as he was not at fault. He has been jailed from Dec 2018 to Aug 2019 for 251 days, after which he was released.

China’s social media that was strongly supportive of Huawei is now turning against the company.

A document that showed that the wrongly accused employee had been compensated almost $15,000 which is 17,552 yuan, for the wrong accusation was revealed, last week. The document has been widely circulated in Chinese social media, making everyone aware of the wrong deed done.

The authenticity of the document could not be verified. However, an attorney had confirmed that the compensation had been made.

But now, the company has stated that every employee has the right to expose any such illegal activities of the company. The company also states that if Li had suffered any damage or rights infringed, he could always file a lawsuit against Huawei.

This is the principle of equality in the eyes of the law, claims Huawei.

The people of China were supportive of Huawei when its CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in Dec 2018. People lashed out against the U.S. for claiming that Huawei was used to spy and gather information from other countries.

However, the wrong accusation, arrest, and bribe of an employee have galvanized into firm support for Li, while people are turning against Huawei.

This incident has become one of the most trending stories in the Weibo platform in China which is almost like Twitter. It has hit Huawei hard, especially during these critical days when the trade war has brought a slowdown in the economy and Huawei is entangled in the trade war.