The arrest of Huawei's global chief financial officer in Canada, reportedly related to the violation of U.S. sanctions, will affect trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, according to risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
Canada's Department of Justice said on Wednesday the country arrested Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, where she is facing extradition to the U.S.
U.S. authorities have been probing Huawei, one of the world's largest makers of telecommunications network equipment, since at least 2016 for allegedly shipping U.S.-origin products to Iran and other countries in violation of U.S. export and sanctions laws, sources told Reuters in April.Coincidentally(?), Huawei is Apple's biggest competitor in the market for smart phones. China can only view this as anti-competitive monopoly capitalism on the part of the US. This is developing into more than a trade war.
CNBC
Arrest of Huawei CFO shows 'the gloves are now fully off,' says Eurasia Group
Huileng Tan
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I would add that few are mentioning is that events like this are blackening perception of the US is China. The Chinese are a very nationalistic people. This will inevitably affect their perception not only of America but also American goods. That will affect sales of US goods in China, the most burgeoning consumer market in the world as China restructure away from an export-led economy to a consumer-led one. In addition, it will further encourage Chinese firms to cut the cord with American capital goods and to develop their own high technology. This would happen eventually, but current US policy is likely speeding it up. Huawei is already overtaking Apple in China.
Naked Capitalism
Huawei CFO, Daughter of Founder and Possible Heir Apparent, Arrested in Canada on a US Extradition Request on Charges of Transfer of US Technology to Iran
Really worrisome, unless the US is willing to make public the exact nature of the putative crime -- it is presumably only "criminal" if Huawei branchplant operations in the US have contravened US law. But if that is the case, how can one arrest a key officer of the parent company? Rather weird, and a little depressing for this Canadian. Not that I like Huawei or the Chinese government (rather the opposite), but as a Canadian I do get tired of holding the bully's coat.
ReplyDeleteUS did the same to some of Alstom company management. They were in direct competition to General Electric in the energy market. GE offered to buy Alstom which Alstom didn’t accept. After that came the arrests of Alstom people without any following trial.
ReplyDeleteOnce Alstom accepted the GE bid all charges were dropped. US uses its legal system to help its big companies to get ahead of competitors and dominate markets.
U.S. sanctions on foreign nations enhance U.S. monopolies, and create pretexts to jail foreign competitors. If a foreign firm threatens to outmaneuver a U.S. monopoly, its executives can be abducted and imprisoned for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions.
ReplyDeleteHuawei Inc. is one of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment and services providers, recently passing Apple to become the world's second-biggest smartphone maker after Samsung. This makes Huawei a “threat to U.S. national security.” (So much for “free markets” and “free competition.”)
Australia and New Zealand have banned government use of products made by Huawei and ZTE.
Japan will do the same.
The USA thinks its laws are globally applicable. So if you violate U.S. sanctions, you have broken “global law."
Imagine the outrage if China arrested an American executive abroad, or worse, an ISRAELI.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau says there was no political motivation behind Canada’s politically motivated arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer.
Ms. Wanzhou has been in jail a week.