"This company is a symbol of the success of the PRC": the US ambassador was summoned to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in connection with the detention of the Huawei share director

The US ambassador to Beijing, Terry Brunsted, was summoned to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, where he was strongly objected to the detention of Huawei Finance Director Meng Wanzhou. Deputy Foreign Minister Le Yucheng made a strict presentation to the American diplomat and demanded to immediately cancel the arrest warrant of the top manager and daughter of the head of Huawei, who was detained in Canada at the request of the United States.

“Such actions of the American side in the crudest manner violate the legitimate rights and interests of a citizen of the PRC and are an extremely bad act. The Chinese side strongly opposes this and strongly insists that the American side should attach great importance to China’s serious position and immediately correct the erroneous actions taken by withdrawing the warrant for the detention of a Chinese citizen, ”the deputy minister said.

"China will follow the actions of the United States and will respond to them in the future," added Le Yucheng.

A similar presentation was made by the ambassador of Canada John McCallum on the eve, who was told that Beijing considered the detention of Meng Wanzhou during a transit transplant in Vancouver a serious violation of her rights, as well as “a bad, unacceptable and inconsistent with the law” act.

“China is insistently demanding that Canada immediately release the detainee, to fully guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of the interested party. Otherwise, this will entail serious consequences, and the Canadian side will bear full responsibility for their actions, ”the Foreign Ministry said.

In addition, it became known that in connection with the detention of Meng Wanzhou, China canceled negotiations with the Canadian trade delegation from the province of British Columbia.

Recall that the incident with Meng Wanzhou, which is suspected of violating US anti-Iranian trade sanctions, became known on December 6, but the detention itself took place on December 1. That is, at about the same time that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the margins of the G20 summit in Argentina.

Then the parties managed to come to a certain progress in the negotiations. Washington promised not to introduce duties announced in January at the rate of 25% from January 1, 2019, and Beijing agreed to take measures to reduce the trade imbalance. Then the parties agreed to continue negotiations on the de-escalation of a trade war, and later Trump expressed optimism that the parties would be able to conclude a trade deal for 90 days.

Now, the detention of a top manager of a large Chinese company can significantly complicate negotiations, experts say. Hearings on the case of the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei should be held on December 10. During this meeting, the defense will try to secure the release of Meng Wanzhou on bail.

At the same time, the head of the National Economic Council of the White House, Lawrence Kudlow, assured Fox News that Trump learned about the detention of Huawei's top manager only after the meeting with Xi Jinping was completed.

“I can unequivocally state that he did not know about it and learned much later ... As for the investigation of the Huawei case, these events have long been held by law enforcement agencies, mainly in the Ministry of Justice,” said Koudlow, who attended the meeting leaders of the United States and the DPRK.

• Chief Financial Officer Huawei Meng Wanzhou
• © Huawei.eu

“Huawei for China is like Coca-Cola for America”

According to the president of the Russian-Chinese analytical center, Sergey Sanakoyev, Washington’s desire to get serious trump cards at the ongoing trade talks with China may be behind the situation with the detention of Meng Wanzhou.

"Apparently, the Americans imagine that they will exchange some of their trump cards, but, in my opinion, this will cause only very serious protests from China," the expert said.

The interlocutor of RT added that, from time to time, espionage charges against Huawei and other Chinese companies do not have any real motivation, but are associated with normal competition.

“This topic has always been a cover. You can always blame espionage for everyone and always, because technology is on the hunt. But I don’t remember something to provide some real evidence that in our case, that is the case with China, ”Sanakoev added.

In turn, an orientalist, Professor of the Peoples' Friendship University Yuri Tavrovsky noted that the situation with Huawei is not the beginning, but the continuation by the United States of a certain “hunt” for Chinese companies. The expert recalled that some time ago, the company ZTE came under attack, and now it is Huawei’s turn.

“This is not just a company. For China, this is a symbol of its success, it's like Coca-Cola for America, ”Tavrovsky said.

“And the fact that the attack was made is not just a company representative, but a daughter of the founder and president of the company, besides the company's chief accountant, is a message to the Chinese that we will deal with all of your leading companies. Especially in those areas that achieve success and which threaten the American leading positions in the field of the most advanced high-tech industries, ”the expert believes.

He added that the "attack" on Huawei immediately after the meeting of Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Buenos Aires and the conclusion of a truce shows that the Americans are not really going to abide by it.

Head of the School of Oriental Studies at the Higher School of Economics Alexei Maslov, in an interview with RT, agreed that there is a significant political background in the current situation, since those actions that Huawei (including trade with Iran) was accused of were made by the company before 2016.

“It’s not by chance that only now this whole thing has surfaced - there is a 90-day period, when the USA expects China to be compliant about the new trade agreement. Therefore, of course, here the political background is more than economic. The second point: in a “strange” way, this coincides with the fact that just recently, many supporters of the United States, including Japan, practically stopped purchasing goods from two major Chinese companies, leaders of the Chinese technology market ZTE and Huawei. Even before this, such purchases were stopped by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, ”the expert recalled.

“We see that on all fronts there is pressure on the technological leaders ... We note that there were no warnings from the American side in advance. This suggests that the United States simply chose the right moment and stabbed China, ”added Maslov.

We add that on December 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with the Kazakhstan news agency Khabar, stated: trade wars do not bring benefits to anyone, and the existing problems must be addressed through the use of legitimate legal procedures of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“We want this global trading system to remain open, so that it will remain at all. Of course, this is not facilitated by the actions of Washington, which has already redrawn the North American free trade zone, refused Trans-Pacific partnership. What comes in return is very difficult to say. Our American colleagues clearly believe that their economic power, as US President Donald Trump said, makes it possible to solve all issues alone, not really worrying about any multilateral structures and not seeking to fulfill the commitments that the United States assumed before, but now this administration he considers obsolete, ”said Lavrov.

At the same time, he expressed conviction that the US authorities would eventually come to understand the need to work collectively and still observe the rules that had been established for the WTO for many decades.