Meng Wanzhou

A top executive and daughter of the founder of the Chinese tech giant Huawei was arrested on Saturday in Canada at the request of the United States, in a move likely to escalate tensions between the two countries at a delicate moment. The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer, unfolded on the same night that President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China dined together in Buenos Aires and agreed to a 90-day trade truce. Ms. Meng, who joined Huawei in 1993 and is also a deputy chairwoman, was taken into custody in Vancouver on Dec. 1 2018. Huawei, China’s largest telecom equipment maker, has been under investigation into whether it had broken American trade controls to countries including Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Huawei has grown into a powerhouse. Founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former People’s Liberation Army engineer, it generated over $90 billion in revenue in 2017. Its equipment is the backbone of mobile networks around the world, and its smartphones are popular in Europe and China. Huawei has long tried to make inroads into the United States, it has been bedeviled by the security concerns. In January, Huawei’s effort to sell a new line of smartphones in the United States was derailed when AT&T walked away from a deal to distribute the devices.