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The
treatment of Li Hongyuan, who had worked for the company for 13
years, has become one of the most discussed topics in recent
days on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.
The telecoms group that rode a wave of patriotic support last
year when it was put on a trade blacklist by the United States
is under growing pressure to make an apology.
"Huawei has lost love this time round," Hu Xijin,
editor-in-chief of influential Chinese state tabloid Global
Times, posted on Weibo.
Li's case surfaced publicly at the end of November when court
documents detailing his case were posted on Chinese social media
platforms. State media outlets later reported how he was
detained by police on an extortion charge for 251 days last year
after asking the company for a severance payment when he was
laid off.
He was later acquitted by authorities and received 100,000 yuan
($14,206.77) in state compensation.
The hashtag "former Huawei employee who was detained hopes
Huawei will apologize" was viewed over 230 million times on
Weibo in the subsequent days.
Huawei said it supported Li's rights to seek a resolution
through legal means, but its response has failed to quell public
criticism of the firm and the topic was still trending on
Tuesday.
Huawei's statement is "impeccable from a legal standpoint" but
did not respond to the public's mood, Hu said.
Both Li and his legal representative declined to comment to
Reuters. Huawei has also declined to provide further comment on
the case.
Fearing Huawei's equipment could be used by China for spying,
the U.S. government has placed the telecoms equipment provider
on a blacklist banning it from buying American-made parts. It
has also urged its allies to bar it from their 5G networks.
U.S. hostility, however, has boosted domestic support for Huawei,
which captured a record 42% of China's smartphone market in the
third quarter at the expense of local rivals like Xiaomi and
Apple.
(Additional Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom, Writing by Brenda
Goh; Editing by Christina Fincher)
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