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Despite the rebuke, Meng continued to rise through the ranks at Huawei. The company said she was executive director and CFO in 2011, when it disclosed its senior leadership for the first time. In December 2011, her father told employees he had cancer surgery twice in the past eight years and announced a rotating system for senior executives to prepare them to lead the company.

Photo by Jason Alden/Bloomberg

The system began with a rotation of CEOs. That has recently shifted to a new model that installs a new chairman every six months who runs the company’s day-to-day operations. The current rotating chairman is Guo Ping. Ren Zhengfei is the company’s CEO.

In March, Meng replaced her father as a vice chairman. News of her arrest provoked an immediate protest from the Chinese embassy in Canada, demanding the U.S. and its neighbour free her. Hong Kong shares fell on Thursday as the incident reignited concerns about U.S.-China tensions. Huawei’s dollar bonds tanked to record lows.

Company Succession

Meng’s ascension to the top job appears unlikely at this time.

There is potential for her to become CEO if she does a stint as rotating chairman, but until that happens she probably doesn’t stand a chance, a headhunter familiar with the company’s executives said.

Ren has not displayed any noticeable favour to his daughter at the company, said an employee who declined to be named. While Meng has a lot of influence over the finance team, her expertise in other areas of the business is perceived by others at the company as limited, the person said. A former employee described her as charming and elegant, coming across almost like a diplomat and at ease around bigwigs and government officials.