The trade war between the US and China has long spilled beyond economic disputes, tariffs and trade agreements. It splashes in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, thunders with gunfights on the Indian-Chinese border, is reflected by curves in pandemic graphs, resonating around the world.
Actually, this war has ceased to be cold, it has been warmed to the limit. And in her hot phase, perhaps, she entered the end of 2018, when the daughter of the founder of the main Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canadian Vancouver.
Such a daring step - the transition to individuals and taking hostage of a competitor (albeit quite an adult) - the governments of world powers have not allowed themselves for a long time. And this suggests that the struggle between the two hegemons has reached a new level.
This story has moved into such a harsh phase today that it deserves to be examined in detail.
Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the founder of Huawei, was arrested on December 1, 2018 immediately upon arrival in Vancouver, Canada. The United States has accused her of fraud and is demanding extradition. Meng is the chief financial officer of Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. - A company that is the creator of the wireless technologies of the future (5G networks) and is in dispute with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Formally, Ms. Meng is accused of misleading the HSBC bank regarding Huawei’s relations with the Iranian company, that is, it violated US sanctions against Iran and exposed HSBC to sanctions.
But, of course, this is a political matter.
To take out, condemn and punish is an act of pressure and intimidation of the entire Chinese political elite, which does not want to accept American dominance in partnership, is convinced by the Chinese writer Nikolai Vavilov, author of the book “The Uncrowned Kings of Red China. Clans and political groups of the PRC ”(2016).
New court documents dated June 12, 2020 show that the CSIS (Canadian Intelligence and Security Service) received an advance warning from the FBI about plans to arrest Wanzhou at Vancouver Airport and a request from colleagues in Canada to arrest them so that the US is not publicly involved.
What was dramatic was the fact that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Donald Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the G20 summit in Argentina and dined together that evening. A promulgated CSIS note warns of “shock waves” from this arrest in the world and bilateral relations between Beijing and Ottawa. People's Daily quotes Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijiang: "This document shows that this case is a serious political incident, and also reveals US plans to exert political pressure on the activities of Huawei and other Chinese high-tech companies."
Founder of Huawei Technologies Co. Ren Zhengfei was preparing to gather his top executives in Argentina in December 2018 to discuss the massive reorganization of the Chinese technology giant when he learned that his daughter was detained at the airport in Vancouver immediately upon arrival.
“Dad, they are coming for you. Please be careful, ”Ms. Meng wrote in a message transmitted through her husband, a former employee of Huawei, and asked her father to cancel the trip.
But the old warrior cannot be scared. Mr. Ren ignored the advice and, accompanied by three deputies in a roundabout way, reached South America via Dubai and Brazil.
“It was risky, but if I were scared, everyone else would be scared, right? He said in an interview with WSJ. “I should have gone there anyway.”
And there, at a resort in the foothills of the Andes, having gathered all the top management of the company, he developed a new plan for the decentralization of the company. The heads of regional branches now receive greater freedom of action, becoming almost autonomous. Almost military tactics.
Huawei’s battle with the United States pushed the 75-year-old entrepreneur, a former engineer in the Chinese army, who started with tiny production of switches, to enter the world stage, giving numerous interviews and fighting not only for the company, but also for the daughter with whom he was unable to communicate for first year after her arrest.
This is a small strong man who holds a punch perfectly.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he praises Google, says that you can learn a lot from the Americans, but calmly says: "We can survive without the United States." And when journalists ask in a particularly sophisticated, sympathetic tone how he feels about his daughter’s arrest, she replies: “She’s smart, I’m calm for her: now she has time to prepare for her doctoral defense, I’m sure she’s not wasting this time (house arrest. - Auth.) in vain, she used to work all her life. It is important to understand: we will not abandon our plans in any case. It won’t break us. ”
In January 2019, visiting the company's research center in Guangzhou, Ren Zhengfei, referring to employees, asked them to take an example from the Americans: “Tear forward, leaving behind bloody traces that others will follow.” In February 2020, while speaking to employees in Wuhan, he said: “The company has entered a state of war.”
From this moment, the rhetoric of China itself with respect to the United States is changing, the army’s exercises on land and in water are intensified, and the PLA’s military rhetoric is replacing “soft power”.
Trump woke the dragon.
At stake is no less technological leadership in the world: will China or the United States control the next generation telecommunication networks, the very strategically important building blocks of the New World?
Today, Huawei overtook Apple and became the second smartphone manufacturer in the world, its equipment operates in 170 countries, the number of employees - 194 thousand people, annual income - more than $ 105 billion, which is comparable to Alphabet, the parent company of Google. And 5G technologies allow Huawei to expand its influence all over the world, without firing a shot, introducing into the orbit of Chinese influence the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and South America.
A particularly sensitive moment for the United States was the theme of British-Chinese cooperation.
Indeed, it was precisely with the government’s permission of January 29, 2020 to build 5G networks that Britain aggravated with the United States, rejecting President Trump’s calls even under the threat of withdrawing from NATO and reducing intelligence sharing.
“5G has already been integrated into the British telecommunications system, and extracting it will cost billions of dollars,” said official London.
“In the story with Maine, it’s important not only that the US is trying to get her extradited, but why Canada has still not issued her. The trial due to coronavirus is delayed. All this time, Maine lives quietly in Canada in his home, and not in prison. To understand what is happening, you need to look at the faces of those who founded the Huawei Corporation. This is first of all the father of Meng Wanzhou, Ren Zhengfei, and her mother, the granddaughter of the vice governor of Sichuan, which means that we are dealing with a large political group, which is primarily associated with the Chinese reformer Deng Xiaoping, the person who organized the accession of Hong Kong and negotiated with the UK. That is, this is a political group that has close political and business ties with the UK. Deng Xiaoping is not only the creator of state capitalism in China, but also the one who gave birth to the largest Chinese high-tech state-owned corporations. And they all built their ties on close relationships with the British crown, ”said Vavilov, a Russian Sinologist who has lived in China for more than ten years and is the author of the South China television channel.
“Therefore, the China-USA conflict that we see is only on the surface, and a deeper conflict is unfolding today between the UK and the USA for global leadership. And we see that British-Chinese relations are stronger, since the American intelligence services can’t extradite Maine in any way, ”he believes.
A few words about Dan, the actual leader of China in the period 1976-1989, the author of the "Chinese miracle." According to legend, he was inspired by the book The Third Wave by the American philosopher-futurologist Alvin Toffler to bet on the Chinese economy in the field of telecommunications.
In 1983, Deng Xiaoping met Toffler in person - then The Third Wave became the most read book in China (after a collection of his speeches). Dan was so inspired by her that he believed Toffler’s predicted total transition of humanity to digital reality and actually blessed the development of the Chinese digital industry. We all know that he did not fail. 35 years - and the Chinese technology giants Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE, Xiaomi, Baidou, Alibaba and others have become technology leaders, the first to move into the new digital future of mankind.
Returning to our story. From the side it may not be clear why Maine was detained in Canada, but there are no accidents.
Canada and China have close ties in research and development. Last year, Huawei spent about $ 200 million on research in Canada, becoming one of the 25 largest private R&D sponsors.
“Most North Americans don’t know that the first 5G developments were actually carried out here at our R&D center in Ottawa,” said Alikhan Welshi, vice president of corporate affairs, Huawei Canada in an interview with Asia Nikkei. “That's why Canada is one of Huawei’s largest research and development centers.”
And this is why the United States issued an arrest warrant for the commercial director and daughter of the founder of Huawei in Canada - to add discord between China and Canada, we add.
That is, the Americans used Canadian intelligence services in the war with Huawei. A funny historical fact: at one time, Canada helped the CIA with cover in an operation to evacuate American hostages from the US Embassy in Tehran in 1980. So this is a historical tradition: both hostages, and the United States, and the Canadian cover for the American special services, and even - in both cases - Iran’s involvement in these skirmishes.
Trump, with his brute force, is generally a specialist in uniting and strengthening foreign policy enemies: having hit the head of the Iranian Al-Quds from the air or given the go-ahead for the arrest of the daughter of the founder of Huawei, he forces both China and the Middle East to consolidate against the star-striped USA flag.
Latest News on the Huawei Case: The United States Department of Commerce has confirmed that Washington removes some of the restrictions regarding technology giant’s collaboration with the United States in developing 5G networks, but does not remove Huawei from the blacklist. As was said, Americans have no alternative to 5G. But they still insist on the extradition of Meng Wanzhou: it is too luxurious a pleasure to deny him.
In response to this today, June 19, China formally charged two Canadian citizens with espionage (former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spevor were detained ten days after Maine was arrested). Perhaps China and Canada are preparing for an exchange of prisoners to give each other a face and not destroy the partnership, while the Trump administration is busy with the problem of re-election in November this year.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the publisher.