Opinion | How Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou became the face of the trade war – and of Hong Kong’s discontent

You could be forgiven for thinking Sabrina Meng Wanzhou of Huawei was some sort of modern-day Helen of Troy. With the world’s great powers going to great lengths to either arrest or free her, her problems definitely seemed larger than life. Her incarceration and subsequent bail hearing were the stuff of melodrama. Meng may not have launched a thousand ships, but her arrest and release struck a lot of nerves, to say the least.

And there is, of course, a power play unfolding on the international stage. Meng has caused a diplomatic frenzy. Canadians have been detained. The president of the United States has vowed to intervene in the Justice Department’s case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or pave the way for a trade deal with China, provoking an outcry over what it would mean for the rule of law. So much is at stake on such a massive scale, Meng has effectively become the face of the US-China trade war.

But what really boggled the mind were the protests on the ground, and the placards on display. The most incongruous of those were fliers declaring undying love for Huawei, the telecom equipment giant founded by Meng’s father. Yet, that love must run deep – so deep that many were ready to offer their properties as collateral as part of Meng’s bail conditions. More extraordinary, still, has been the blatant display of Meng’s privileged lifestyle.

The public fixation on Meng’s case isn’t surprising, though it isn’t necessarily healthy. The Huawei executive’s arrest is an important story in the context of an acrimonious trade war that is threatening the world economy and possibly the world itself, and yet Hongkongers have just been hung up on the number of passports in Meng’s possession.

Never mind that Hong Kong is caught in the crossfire of the trade war. That officials, banks and even the Hang Seng Index are reminding us about our economic vulnerability. That the US is raising the awful possibility of suspending Hong Kong’s status as a separate customs area from China.