Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
The trade truce between the US and China was fun while it lasted for about 24 hours.
Following the Dec 1 arrest of Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wangzhou (which took place right around the time Trump and Xi were having dinner in Buenos Aires, and which the entire top echelon of the Trump administration claims to have been unaware of heading into the dinner), on Saturday China made its growing displeasure and rising anger clear when Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng summoned Canadian ambassador to China John McCallum to urge the immediate release of Meng, threatening Canada with grave consequences and calling her arrest as she changed planes in Canada “unreasonable, unconscionable and vile in nature.”
Artist’s sketch of Meng Wanzhou in a Canadian courtroom
Le told McCallum that the arrest was a severe violation of a Chinese citizens’ legitimate rights and interests. The move ignored the law, and Canada should be held accountable if Meng was not immediately released, Le said in the statement.
Meng’s arrest, based on allegations that she committed fraud to sidestep sanctions against Iran with the help of the one bank which over the past decade was directly and indirectly implicated in virtually every instance of money laundering, HSBC, has become a flash-point in trade tensions between the U.S. and China, roiling markets and judging by the latest news, when futures reopen for trading in a few hours we may see another flash crash, because moments ago China’s Vice Foreign Minister doubled down when Le Yucheng also summoned the U.S. Ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, in a protest over the arrest of the Huawei Chief Financial Officer.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summons U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to protest the arrest of #Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou by Canadian authorities, which took place at the request of the United States pic.twitter.com/cfoaZXz4Cb
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) December 9, 2018
The minister said U.S. actions have violated the “legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and are extremely bad in nature,” according to a posting on the ministry website. “China will take further action based on the U.S. actions.”
Curiously, attempts to access the Chinese foreign ministry website from abroad have proven unsuccessful.
Like with Canada, the ministry urged the US to withdraw the Huawei CFO arrest warrant, crushing any speculation that Beijing was allowing the US to arrest her as a sign of “goodwill” in ongoing negotiations.
As a reminder, on Friday, the U.S. began a case against the Chinese telecoms giant in a Vancouver courtroom, alleging that Meng had hidden ties between Huawei and a company called Skycom that did business in Iran, said a lawyer representing Canada during the court hearing.
Meng, 46, daughter of Huawei’s founder, is spending the weekend in jail after a decision on whether to grant bail was not reached amid concerns any bail amount would prove too low and she would promptly flee back to China. The case will continue on Monday.
The second official warning in 24 hours marks a sharp escalation in Beijing’s rhetoric as investors – still weary from Wednesday’s S&P futures flash crash after news of her arrest first hit – worry that the arrest could crush the unstable trade detente between the US and China, resulting in even more aggressive tariffs. As a reminder, a federal US judge had issued a warrant for Meng’s arrest back in August. Though after she was made aware of the warrant, Meng avoided travel to the US. She was arrested in Vancouver last Saturday while traveling to Mexico.
Aside from breaking off trade talks, some are worried that Beijing could seek to retaliate in kind by arresting one or more notable US executives, which in turn prompted Cisco to “erroneously” advise its employees against non-essential travel to China. And while the threats of Chinese bureaucrats might not amount to much in the eyes of US prosecutors, threatening a US executive with long-term detention in a Chinese “reeducation camp” just might.
alleging that Meng had hidden ties between Huawei and a company called Skycom that did business in Iran, said a lawyer representing Canada during the court hearing.
Smoke and mirrors. The real issue is Huawei’s encryption; making it impossible for the “Five Eyes” countries to intercept communications.
Five Eyes against Huawei http://www.voltairenet.org/article204264.html
No the real issue is China is more technologically advanced than the US, Huawei just released the new hi-tech 7nm chip before Apple. No American company can do 5G, only China and Korea. The Americans are trying to stop Chinese technology.
Your right; encryption alone can’t amount to such drama. The 5G network in relation to the C/NPU tech race is the first and foremost reason.
Yeah, this one, this uh….. eh…… move, given an Go by someone, since this obviouslly have happened, and this of course, kicks in some intresting things, first, foremost, the acusations, against an Chines woman, whom as far I know lives in Canada, suddenly have done something, uh, seriouslly something, and we awaited in awe, what lame shit do they invent this time, yup, Iran, yeah, Iran. Some few points:
Iran, an country the imperial banana republic have given the finger, flipped a bird to and hammerd with issues and narratives the rest of the world though was the past, and then by them self, of course, imposed sanctions with as some of the officials have stated, the intention to starw the people to submission, an crime against humanity since the only victim is civilians and why on earth do the Canada whom drools something about moral values then do this, to an Chines, whom isnt doing anything wrong, acording to the majorety of the world, but to the wims of the Impisses in the WH, because they say so, doing trade with Iran is an crime, while what the UssA is doing, openly or not, is not, intresting issue dont you think, regarding something so pesky as moral values. Do the Canadian land still have an independent law, and legislation, not able to be pushed as wished by extarnal forces, an law to protect people, aka due prosess, intresting Canada, have you gone Medival, dark ages, yeah, benefis the scums, never people.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
This, again Cnanda breatches every international laws, where as the woman isnt guilty of anything else than doing trade thru whatever channel they chouse to use, is what, an national security threat, Huawei, witch have done their own decrypting, their only fault, and the UssA then drools something about intelectual theft, hell yeah, look whoos speaking, the grand mafia them self, controls everything, and if I want something secure, on an day to day life and trade, I want is to be safe, as long its not involving direct crimes I want my data to be safe, and so far Hyawei can do that, I always apriciate quality, quality pays, and ingenuity, take care of the brains, they dont grow on trees, Huawei can provide you with it, the problem is that the banana republic cant do that, to compeet, and on top of it, what They want with it, so they kindnap one of the top people and I am 100% certain the other one was killed, in that I am sure. This is almost an open declration of war, this move is dangerously amaturish and flat out stupid, and for what, do they even them self know, huh. I dont expect even that. This was an cluster f….. that awed me, yeehaa, they have gone into another reality, nock, nock, anybody in there, helohohoo. Dunka, dunka.
Yup, Intresting times indeed.
peace
Interesting development. US wants to escalate just after having a deal. Let’s see how it unfolds.
Remember how Trump attacked Syria whilst having a meeting with Putin? He had this woman arrested whilst meeting with Xi. Also trump seems to pick women to victimize, first it was Maria Butina, and now Meng.
It’s like a medieval military campaign, or similar to ISIS, where they capture the women of the enemy, and hold them for ransom.
It is indeed and it shows the true colours of the Medieval Zio Scum that control those Americans and British who are too engrossed in Zionist trivia to see the tyranny.
In fact Trump attacked Syria right when they were eating that chocolate cake with Xi but never the less you’re right that he constantly shows that you can’t have a deal with US because they will never honor it themselves.
Yes of course, you are right it was Xi.
Exactly, kidnapping and extortion. Blatantly CIA, did Trump know, or a set up. Mrs. Wanzhou was enroute to that dinner as was Stanford physicist Soucheng Zhang, who died falling off his high rise balcony, an alleged suicide. He was a Nobel prize winner, and was tied into Huawei. Rather doubt Xi will be eating with Trump again.
Lets hope that China dumps hundreds of billions of US treasury bonds now Tudor :)
Even better to get teamed up with Russia’s alternative to SWIFT and make it work.
I think that the real Chinese response will come from the Chinese people, not the government. iPhone sales in China just went from $11.4 billion, to zero.
Looks like Canada has committed an Act of War against China on behalf of a third party, the U.S.. Trudeau you dumb sack of spuds.
Uggghhh…i know…what idiot authorized this arrest.
What idiot politician justifies this…
If the Canadian government had any intelligence, they would have discretely warned Meng. When the US installed ballistic missiles in South Korea, the Koreans paid the price, not the US. The South Koreans even locked up the guy(Lotte) who sold the land to the US military for the missiles, to try and appease China.
The same will happen in Canada, it will take awhile, nothing obvious, but Canada will be in deep recession by this time next year, if they don’t release the hostage.
My take away from this mess.
The west is upset, it no longer leads the way in systems achitecture like in 2000.
In those days we have a industry leader that basically had monopoly on these things. Nortel Networks anyone??
That entity went the wayof the dodo due to MASSIVE CORRUPTION!!!!
factories close r&d stops….
So we had it and lost it through our own stupidity.
Then we build an entire society around it, without investing in the future, that china correcly saw coming.
Now 18 years later…this…nonsense.
We have no one to blame but our weak governments and greedy corporations.
Thanks lawyers you did your jobs great too!!! Not
The plot thickens. It seems this might be about a patent infringement case being heard in China. The Jewish company Qualcomm has charged that Apple stole some of its intellectual property. A Chinese court has ruled in favor of Qualcomm, and banned most iPhone sales in China. This has severely affected the Apple share price, until this morning when someone(US taxpayers) bought a lot of Apple shares.
Steve Mollenkopf, Qualcomm’s chief executive, has said he expects that victories in its patent cases would help persuade Apple to agree to settle the legal disputes.
Qualcomm is the largest supplier of modem chips that allow smartphones to communicate over cellular networks. More than half of its profits have historically come from patent license fees it charges to phone makers, which have in turn complained to regulatory authorities and sued Qualcomm.(NYT)
Check this out, it seems that Reuters started this witch hunt in 2012.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-huawei-hp/exclusive-huawei-partner-offered-embargoed-hp-gear-to-iran-idUSBRE8BT0BF20121230
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-skycom/exclusive-huawei-cfo-linked-to-firm-that-offered-hp-gear-to-iran-idUSBRE90U0CC20130131?irpc%932
The author Steve Stecklow is an Israeli citizen, and specializes in anti Iran propaganda.
https://muckrack.com/steve-stecklow
Update. China arrests Michael Kovrig a Canadian working for International Crisis Group, which is funded by George Soros. Canada Goose shares fall 20%.
Canada releases Meng Whanzhou on bail.
The Canucks probably think the trouble will now stop. I once heard an Australian diplomat say that China and America were the same. So would America back off?
I’ve got news for Canada, your troubles have only just begun.