LI HONGYUAN, a former employee of Huawei, who had worked for the company for 13 years, was arrested in January after the company sued him for extortion because he received 300,000 yuan ($42,700) in compensation from the company for the termination of his employment. He was detained for 251 days until August, when he was released because of "unclear criminal facts and insufficient evidence". China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Li's compensation payment was transferred by the department head through the personal bank account of the department secretary, and the memorandum of transaction was "economic compensation for termination".

Citing the transfer record of the payment via the personal account of the department secretary, Huawei accused Li of blackmail.