Letters | As the China trade war intensifies, so does America’s global mafia image

After the cold war, the US appointed itself the international policeman, freely interfering in other countries’ affairs as it pleased, invading other nations and setting up military bases around the world at will. Now the self-righteous policeman has been corrupted by power.

Behaving like a mafia on a global scale, the US says China makes more money selling goods in its neighbourhood than American firms do in China. US tariffs on Chinese goods are akin to protection money. The US tells the countries it protects on other continents not to buy cheaper and more advanced 5G technology from China, because China would steal their state secrets. These countries must now buy more expensive but less advanced technology or lose American protection. The US itself lags behind China in 5G development.

 This is bullying, given that the US has produced no concrete evidence of China stealing state secrets, just as it failed to provide proof of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Meanwhile, it is the US that has spied on its own allies.

It asked Canada to arrest Huawei’s chief financial officer and extradite her to the US for clearly political reasons and boldly commented on Hong Kong’s proposed changes to its extradition laws. It assumes everyone is gullible, but is everyone so easily fooled?