My Take | Everyone is hypocritical in the Huawei saga
- If Canada and the US would dispense with their pernicious ‘lawfare’, China could end its disgraceful detention of two Canadians
Beijing is hypocritical in rounding on Canada for forming a coalition of 58 countries, including the United States, in a non-binding denunciation of state-sponsored arbitrary detention of foreign nationals for political purposes.
That looks exactly like what China has done with Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have been charged with espionage but whose cases are seen as retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei Technologies’ No 2 and founder’s daughter Meng Wanzhou pending extradition to the United States. It is indefensible.
But then, it’s clear that the US case against Meng amounts to trumped-up charges that are part of Washington’s decade-long campaign to kill off the Chinese telecoms pioneer through all available means, including illegal cyberspying, sanctions and banning the sales of advanced US chips.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said arbitrarily detaining individuals as leverage was indefensible and Britain would not tolerate it. Oh really! Julian Assange, anyone?
The legal case against Meng is really “lawfare” waged as part of US foreign policy to prevent the emergence of a competitive telecoms giant from China that could dominate the global 5G market and large chunks of the internet. In this aim, it has already succeeded as the company now hangs by a thread.
Canada was foolish enough to walk into the middle of a fight between two superpowers. As the junior partner to Washington, it felt it had to play along with its extradition obligations. The extradition is being contested by Meng’s lawyers in a Vancouver court.