MAGA turns heat on China: Daughter of Huawei founder/CFO arrested over Iran sanctions

[Swordsmyth]

Just a few days after Cisco "erroneously" advised its employees to avoid non-essential travel to China, Beijing has returned the favor, and according to the SCMP, Chinese researchers working in sensitive hi-tech sectors have been warned not to take any unnecessary trips to the United States "as unease grows in the business community following the arrest of a tech executive in Canada."
Workers at a research agency who can't avoid crossing the Pacific were also told in an internal memo that if they did have to travel to the US, they should remove any sensitive information from their mobile phones and laptops, the SCMP reported citing an anonymous source. The soft travel ban is the result of tensions following the arrest of Huawei Technologies CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Canada, who despite being released on bail was not allowed to leave the country.
The South China Morning Post reported last month that the US embassy in Beijing had revoked 10-year multiple-entry visas issued to some researchers specialising in China-US relations at government-backed institutions without explanation amid tightened visa scrutiny. Some researchers also had their computers and mobile phones subjected to checks by US customs officers.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-its-essential

[Swordsmyth]

What does NOT make sense is that the arrest happened on Saturday and markets did not find out about it until Wednesday night. Let’s try out one of those equivalence narratives so popular in the business press. If Google’s global CFO had been detained in Hong Kong for extradition to China, would the world have waited five days to find out? This is where what had to be a massive conspiracy of silence begins to raise some interesting questions.
U.S. prosecutors are never shy about their victories. Their detention of Meng is a BIG story – it sends the message that not even the rich and well connected are immune from prosecution under the sanctions regime. Since those who violate the sanctions are at least well paid and well connected and not mere bank tellers, getting this message across is crucial. Our bet is that Bolton (or someone else) told them to keep the story under wraps, probably to protect the trade negotiations, not sabotage them.
If Huawei were an American company, it would have been legally obligated to announce the detention of its CFO. That is a material fact that must be disclosed promptly. Chinese security laws are enforced in a more “flexible” way. But why wouldn’t the Chinese government want the information out if they are really so furious as they appear to be in the last few days? Something really begins to smell at this point.
Then along comes a story in the South China Morning Post about an October meeting with employees in which Meng said that there are cases where, “the external rules are clear-cut and there’s no contention, but the company is totally unable to comply with in actual operations. In such cases, after a reasonable decision-making process, one may accept the risk of temporary non-compliance.”
That statement is full of euphemisms, but it makes putting the corporate interest ahead of complying with the law the official position of management. Put that in the context of a four-year anti-corruption campaign by Xi and a purge of top-level tech executives who have gotten too big for their britches. In Xi’s new world it may be one thing to have said that it was ok to put China’s interests first, but she is putting the corporate interests ahead of China’s interests.
Also note that these comments were in quotes from an internal (and closed) Huawei meeting. How did the SCMP acquire these direct quotes? The SCMP is one of the world’s truly great papers, publishing candid news and commentary focused on getting to the truth in a way that is only a distant memory in American newspapers. That said, it is also like Hong Kong – one nation, two systems. If Beijing really wanted a story out, it would provide the sources and the reporters would do the rest. And if they really wanted a story spiked it probably would be spiked. Those direct quotes obviously came from Chinese authorities and the story was printed at a very inconvenient time for Meng – when she was protesting her innocence. Somebody in Beijing thinks Meng is a loose cannon.
Then there is the apparently bellicose Chinese reaction largely in the internal Chinese press. Any country is obligated to protest the detention of one of its leading citizens and to let its citizens know that it is loudly protesting. But consider a Friday story from the SCMP written by Zhou Xin, the head of the political economy section at the paper. “China has separated the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou from trade talks between Beijing and Washington" Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said on Thursday that he had no information at all about Meng’s case. Gao also said China was confident about reaching a trade deal with the United States within the 90-day truce agreed by the two sides in Argentina last weekend. Separately, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also refused to directly link the arrest of Meng – in Canada last Saturday at the request of the United States – with the trade negotiations.” That is an authoritative story outlining the official Chinese position.
Let’s be a little conspiratorial or, more precisely, try and create a narrative that fits the facts. It arguably serves everyone’s interests for Ms. Meng to be taught a lesson. It is in Bolton’s and the DoJ’s interest to send a message that access to power
and connections does not buy you a get out of jail free card. It is in Xi’s interest, or at least in the interests of major portions of the Chinese government, to send a signal that even the extremely well-connected still have to toe the party line.
The detention did not involve any surprises. The charges against Meng were leveled three months before her arrest. The market reaction seemed to be based on the notion that this was a last-minute surprise. As for the Chinese, Xi and Company knows where everyone is going and when. They certainly knew that Meng was traveling to Vancouver, that she had a warrant for her arrest outstanding, and that Canada extradites to the U.S. They did nothing to warn her.
Why put Canada in the middle of it all? That one is easy. Plausible deniability. China can yell and scream about how horrible it is that America (via Canada) is detaining one of its leading citizens. It can plant stories to scare American executives that China will do the same thing to them and that Trump is the culprit. If she steps on American soil, then the negotiability of her fate ends. The machinery of the American justice system takes over. If Trump were to get involved then incoming House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff could call it “obstruction of justice” and an “impeachable offense,” based on his current standards regarding those terms.
Friday was a bail hearing in a Vancouver court. The government maintains she is a flight risk. She could easily hop on a private jet at some small airport in British Columbia and be gone before anyone knew. The $1 million bail figure her defense is proposing is a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of her family’s net worth. Her defense maintains that “face” matters a lot and not only would she lose face by fleeing she would cause China to lose face as well. All of this was said with a straight face. The judge took all this under advisement and the bail hearing will continue on Monday. Meng spends the weekend in jail and maybe longer. Our conspiracy theory holds that she will be released when everyone thinks the lesson has been learned. America scores a win in terms of signal value about enforcing Iran sanctions whether Meng spends two weeks, two months, or the rest of her life behind bars. Xi will have signaled what he thinks about prioritizing corporate interests over national interests and bending regulations. The most elegant way to have it happen would be to give her bail and let her hop on that jet. She loses face and has sharp limits on her future ability to travel. But that may be too clever by half.
One does not have to buy this conspiracy theory in all its detail to get at the essential truth that markets need to digest. Meng’s arrest is not going to affect the outcome of the trade talks. Xi (and China) have too much of a stake in this to let the antics of a close friend’s naughty daughter stand in the way of him getting what he wants. And once an example is made, America also has too much to lose.
The Meng affair is going to be just one of many bumps in the road between here and a trade deal. This is one reason why we view the 90-day time table as “aspirational.” Market participants that got so worked up about Meng probably do not have the stomach to make the whole journey to a deal. In the geopolitical world, Meng affairs do not happen every day but they do happen every six weeks or so. In that sense, having a “puke” now may be therapeutic. It gets it out of the way. Finally, a note to the Fed: even if the market is puking because of Meng, you do not give the patient something that is going to make it sicker. And do remember that it began vomiting long before Ms. Meng came to Vancouver and for entirely different reasons.
* **
As a reminder, on Tuesday afternoon Meng was granted bail for C$10 million, and has surrendered her Chinese and Hong Kong passports while being surrounding by security at all times, making it difficult to flee to China; difficult, but not wholly impossible.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...snt-make-sense

[timosman]

The Deep State Has Destroyed Trump’s Chances Of A Trade Deal With China, And The Stock Market Is Tanking As A Result

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...ng-as-a-result

Somebody out there apparently does not want President Trump to make a trade deal with China. Just after U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to suspend the implementation of new tariffs for 90 days, one of China’s most important tech executives was literally kidnapped as she was changing planes in Canada. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was simply on her way to Mexico, but at the urging of U.S. authorities the Canadians grabbed her and are refusing to let her go. Reportedly, the plan is to extradite her to the United States where she will apparently face charges relating to Huawei’s evasion of U.S. sanctions against Iran. When Trump was negotiating face to face with the Chinese, he was not aware that this was taking place. So now all of Trump’s hard work is out the window, and our relations with the Chinese are probably the worst that they have been since the Korean War.

If U.S. authorities wanted to punish Huawei, they should have just slapped a big fine on them and have been done with it.

The Chinese would have been annoyed, but not that much damage would have been done.

But kidnapping a high profile member of Chinese tech loyalty and throwing her in prison is something that the Chinese will not forgive.

The Chinese are a deeply nationalistic people, and the kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou is being treated as a grave national insult in China. If the goal of the Deep State was to really upset the Chinese, they picked a perfect target. The following comes from Robert Wenzel…

“This is a really big deal. Ms. Meng is by birth and position a member of China’s corporate royalty,” David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, is quoted by TGM as having said.

According to TGM, Meng, 46, who also goes by the name Sabrina, was appointed CFO of Huawei in 2011 and is also one of four deputy chairs. She appears to be being groomed for the top job at Shenzhen-based Huawei, which is now the world’s second-largest maker of telecommunications equipment.

Just imagine how Americans would feel if China kidnapped a high profile member of our tech royalty and multiply that outrage by about 10.

Until Meng Wanzhou is let go, there is not going to be any deal with China. Many Americans are not familiar with Huawei, but they are essentially China’s version of Apple or Microsoft. The following originally comes from CNN…

Huawei is one of the world’s biggest makers of smartphones and networking equipment. It is at the heart of China’s ambitions to reduce its reliance on foreign technology and become an innovation powerhouse in its own right.

The country is pumping hundreds of billions into its “Made in China 2025” plan, which aims to make China a global leader in industries such as robotics, electric cars and computer chips. The introduction of 5G wireless technology, which hinges on Huawei, is a top priority.

Meng Wanzhou is not just the CFO of the company. She is also the daughter of the founder of the company and she is considered to be a hero by millions of Chinese.

So what in the world is the Deep State thinking? Are we going to start regularly kidnapping individuals that work for foreign corporations that have somehow violated U.S. laws?

And should Americans expect the same treatment? How would you like it if your mother or daughter was kidnapped while changing planes in a foreign country because the company that she works for had committed some sort of violation?

I don’t want to make it sound like Huawei is perfectly innocent, because they aren’t. But this is a move that is not just going to ensure a nightmarish trade war with China. Ultimately, things could get a whole lot worse than that.

At this point, the Chinese have summoned the U.S. ambassador and have formally demanded Meng Wanzhou’s release…

The Chinese foreign ministry on Sunday summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to protest the detention of a senior tech executive by the Canadian authorities “at the unreasonable behest of the United States.”

Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng demanded the release of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, who is accused by U.S. officials of attempting to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.

It would be wonderful if Meng Wanzhou was released, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.

So now our relationship with China is officially in the toilet, and this is one of the factors that could push stock prices much lower once again this week. In fact, as I write this article Dow futures are way down…

U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday night as traders feared an intensifying trade war between the United States and China.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 197 points, implying a decline of 173.95 points at Monday’s open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also declined. The losses would add to a steep decline from last week.

This current “correction” was supposed to be over by the time December rolled around, but instead stock prices accelerated their decline last week.

And many of those that work in financial circles are starting to use language that is much more pessimistic than we have become accustomed to seeing. Here is just one example…

“We’re very mindful once again where we’re at in the cycle,” Gregory Carmichael, chief executive of the Cincinnati-based lender Fifth Third, said at a conference last week. “We’re well positioned to deal with the downturn in the economy, and we’ll be very cautious.”

I don’t know what “well positioned to deal with the downturn in the economy” means exactly, but it sounds nice.

It frustrates me that so few people seem to understand the gravity of the situation that we are facing. Our stores are filled with cheap products that come from China and they own more than a trillion dollars of our national debt. The two largest economies in the entire world are decoupling from one another, and if the Chinese conclude that they are not able to salvage the relationship then they will rapidly become an exceedingly dangerous enemy.

This is a major turning point, and the kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou has put us on a road that doesn’t lead anywhere good. Hopefully things can rapidly be fixed, because if not, events are likely to start escalating quite dramatically.

[acptulsa]

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/...0181128_socsec

The anti-terrorism unit suited up.

This was an international affair… a deal between the USA and New Zealand, two members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

Helicopters, tactical suits, high caliber firearms—the whole shebang. They busted in the doors and successfully raided the multi-million-dollar compound.

What was this… capturing the next in line after Bin Laden? Busting an international human trafficking ring?

Did you know? You can receive all our actionable articles straight to your email inbox... Click here to signup for our Notes from the Field newsletter.
Actually, elite New Zealand law enforcement was acting at the request of the United States to arrest a guy named Kim Dotcom.

Kim Dotcom is a large, jovial man of German-Swedish origins. He founded Megaupload, an online platform that allowed us to basically watch movies online for free.

Unfortunately for Kim, a lot of that content included American movies, with American copyrights.

US artists didn’t get their money, which meant the US government didn’t get its tax dollars.

But Kim Dotcom was a German citizen hanging out in New Zealand. So tough luck for the USA, right?

Wrong. US jurisdiction extends globally… and the government is getting its pound of flesh.

Violate US copyright laws, and get your door kicked in by a SWAT team, even half a world away.

Then there was the Australian, living in London who shared leaked, classified and sensitive documents with the public.

I’m talking about the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.

He walked into the Ecuadorian embassy in London six years ago, asking for asylum.

There was a Swedish warrant out for his arrest, alleging rape charges. He faced extradition to Sweden, and feared he would then be turned over to US authorities… who wanted Assange taken down for exposing the extent of the spying the US government was carrying out on its own citizens.

For years it was suspected that there was a sealed US indictment against Assange. Last month, the proof emerged when the US accidentally revealed the filing, but not the specific charges.

So, we’ve got a Aussie journalist who might get arrested in the UK (which has an extradition agreement with the US) for a crime allegedly committed in Sweden… all because the US government has a hard on for this guy.

But this journalist made the mistake of providing the world with the valuable insight that the authoritarian US government was surveilling its own citizens.

And, again, the US wants its pound of flesh.

Just recently, the US has once again flexed its global might to throw someone in jail.

As you’re likely aware, Trump is in the middle of some tense trade war negotiations with China.

Interesting timing that the Chief Financial Officer of the Chinese tech company Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was just arrested at the request of US authorities. The company allegedly violated US sanctions against Iran by selling technology to the country.

But here’s the thing… Wanzhou wasn’t on American soil. She was arrested in Canada. The Canadian government is bringing the US case against Wanzhou, who could be extradited to the US to face charges.

So a Chinese citizen, working for a Chinese company, complying with Chinese law, was arrested on Canadian soil… because she allegedly violated US law.

Is there any part of the world which isn't in the jurisdiction of the totalitarian U.S. government?

[Swordsmyth]

Days after revealing that businessman Michael Spavor - who became the second Canadian citizen detained in China since Beijing warned it would retaliate against Canada for the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver earlier this month - had been arrested for "threatening national security", the Communist Party made clear that this is only the beginning, and that Canada should expect "further escalation" as Beijing has no intentions of backing down - and every intention of sending a message to US allies that they should stay out of the still-simmering dispute between the world's two largest economies.

Via an editorial in the Global Times, an English-language Chinese media company considered to be a mouthpiece for the Communist Party, China accused Canada and other US allies of forming "a collective encirclement and suppression of Chinese high-tech enterprise Huawei" - likely a reference to the US's campaign to convince its allies to avoid Huawei equipment, citing its vulnerability to Chinese spies, as well as Canada's cooperation in Meng's detention - the editorial "suggested" that China should leverage its economic heft to deter US allies from taking actions contrary to China's interest.

By calling on its allies, the US has gradually formed a collective encirclement and suppression of Chinese high-tech enterprise Huawei. It is a wicked precedent.
Almost all US allies maintain active economic and trade ties with China, of which China is the biggest trading partner of many of them. China needs to urge these countries to keep neutral in the conflict between Washington and Beijing.
It is possible for China to achieve this goal to a considerable extent because China does not threaten the strategic security of the US and its allies and it is more conducive for them to pursue national interests by maintaining good ties with China than to follow the hard line of the US.

And if these countries continue to work against China to appease the US, China should not hesitate to retaliate.

However, this does not mean that Beijing will capitulate to them at every step. For those countries that seek to ingratiate themselves to the US without regard to China's interests, China should firmly fight back, causing a heaving price for them.

Though China should carefully pick and choose when to accommodate these intrusions and when to react, the editorial resolutely stated that Canada had "crossed a line" by detaining Meng.

Canada crossed the line by helping the US detain an executive of Huawei and China needs to clearly express that it doesn't accept it. If Canada were to ultimately extradite Meng Wanzhou to the US, it would certainly be at the cost of a backslide in China-Canada ties.
In addition, it would be a test for China's national will and wisdom to decide when to accommodate certain countries for decisions made while being caught between China and the US, and when to resolutely counter their damage to China's interests.

The editorial goes on to suggest that perhaps if China had taken a harder line against Australia when it became the first country to accept the US's advice and ban Huawei's equipment, other countries (like, maybe, Canada) would have thought twice about interfering.

Australia was the first to follow Washington in blocking Huawei devices. As Wu Xinbo, a scholar of Fudan University, pointed out in an interview with the Global Times, "If China firmly fought back on Australia's decisions, other countries might think twice before considering calling off Huawei's products."
China certainly will not overact, because such a move will isolate China and construct the outcome the US prefers. Beijing needs to meticulously select counter-targets to really make them learn a lesson.

When weighing retaliation against the US, China must focus on participants in the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance - particularly Canada, Australia and New Zealand. As we've previously reported, infiltrating the "Five Eyes" cabal has long been a focus for Chinese intelligence services.


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...onflict-canada

[AZJoe]

[AZJoe]

TRUMP’S SANCTIONS MEET HIS TRADE WAR by Jacob G. Hornberger

President Trump’s sanctions against Iran have just intersected with his trade war … in the form of the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Huawei Technologies … Meng was arrested by Canadian officials on the request of U.S. officials as she was changing planes in Vancouver.

U.S. officials are now seeking Meng’s extradition to face criminal charges in the United States. The charges? Get this: They are alleging that she violated Trump’s sanctions against Iran. [for allegedly lying about Huawei’s connection to another firm that did business with Iran]. …
What? Meng isn’t a U.S. citizen. What does she have to do with Trump’s sanctions against Iran? …

when the U.S. government imposes sanctions on a foreign country, it expects not just U.S. citizens to comply with its dictates. It expects everyone in the world to comply with its dictates. That’s how the U.S. worldwide empire operates. The empire has worldwide jurisdiction. Its criminal laws apply to everyone in the world. Our country’s ruler issues the orders, and everyone in the world must obey or face the prospect of being arrested, brought to the United States, and placed in a federal penitentiary.

Meng’s arrest, of course, cannot be divorced from Trump’s trade war against China. By arresting Meng, Trump, the self-labeled “Tariff Man,” is obviously upping the ante in his trade war to bring further pressure to bear …

Executives of major U.S. companies who travel to China now might well find themselves in the same straits that Meng finds herself. …

It is not the job of the president of the United States to be a negotiator or agent for U.S. businesses. It is not his job to rectify any trade injustices in foreign countries. If American businessmen don’t like the trade conditions in some foreign country, there is a simple remedy: Negotiate better terms or just stay out of that country. No American businessman needs for Trump to be his daddy and to wage trade wars on his behalf. …

it is not the job of the president of the United States to target the citizenry of a foreign country with economic privation and death as a way to secure regime change in that country. That’s what Trump is doing with his sanctions on Iran. He’s trying to kill or impoverish as many Iranians as he can until the Iranian regime cries, “We’ve had enough. We’ll do whatever you say.” …

Trump’s trade wars and his sanctions are moral, economic, and political abominations. They infringe on the fundamental, God-given right of people to travel and trade with whomever they want. They bring untold misery, suffering, and death to countless innocent people. And they engender ever-increasing and unnecessary anger and hatred toward the American people, making it unsafe for Americans to travel around the world.

Unfortunately, Trump’s sanctions and embargoes reflect the statist mindset … it also happens to be the standard progressive-leftist-socialist position as well, as reflected by the minimal amount of criticism coming from the left against Trump’s trade wars and sanctions.

Sanctions and trade wars destroy freedom. They destroy prosperity. They destroy harmony. They are the essence of tyranny and oppression. …

[AZJoe]

MofA: Short Term Thinking Dooms U.S. Anti-China Strategy

The United States issued an arrest warrant against the chief financial officer and heir apparent of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou. At issue is a six years old alleged violation of sanctions against Iran. Mrs. Meng was arrested in Canada. …

It is unprecedented that an officer of a large company is personally indicted for the alleged sanction violations by a subsidiary company:

The US rarely arrests senior businesspeople, US or foreign, for alleged crimes committed by their companies. Corporate managers are usually arrested for their alleged personal crimes (such as embezzlement, bribery or violence) rather than their company’s alleged malfeasance.

Meng is charged with violating US sanctions on Iran. … In 2011, for example, JPMorgan Chase paid US$88.3 million in fines for violating US sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Yet chief executive officer Jamie Dimon wasn’t grabbed off a plane and whisked into custody. The U.S. indicted dozens of banks for violating its sanction regime. They had to pay huge fines (pdf) but none of their officers were ever touched. …

this U.S. operation [is] a hostage taking to blackmail China. President Trump confirmed that this is indeed the case:

U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Tuesday he would intervene in the U.S. Justice Department’s case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.

The arrest of Meng is but one part of a larger political campaign against China directed out of the office of National Security Advisor John Bolton …

In typical propaganda style the U.S. media depict the Chinese as enemies …

Taken together, the announcements represent a major broadside against China over its mounting aggression against the West and its attempts to displace the United States as the world’s leader in technology ... The actions come amid mounting intelligence showing a sustained Chinese hacking effort devoted to acquiring sophisticated American technologies of all stripes. A number of agencies — including the Justice, State, Treasury and Homeland Security departments — have pushed for a newly aggressive U.S. response. A National Security Council committee coordinated the actions.

One wonders what those "mounting aggressions" are supposed to be. Is the U.S. not constantly spying and hacking for economic for political gain? Other reports today of alleged Chinese hacking are obviously part of the concerted anti-China campaign. As usual no evidence is presented for the vague allegations … The new anti-China campaign follows a similar push of anti-Russian propaganda three month ago. …

The string of U.S. accusations and measures against China are partly to protect the market share of U.S. companies against better and cheaper Chinese products and partly geopolitical. Neither has anything to do with protecting the international rule of law.

After three centuries of anglo-american imperialism the economic center of the world is moving back to the east. … The current U.S. strategy is to restrict China's access to foreign markets, advanced technologies, global banking and higher education. … It is typical for the current U.S. to seek short term advantage while disregarding the long term negative effects of its doing. It is a major reason for China's rise and its future supremacy.

[Swordsmyth]

MofA: Short Term Thinking Dooms U.S. Anti-China Strategy

The United States issued an arrest warrant against the chief financial officer and heir apparent of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou. At issue is a six years old alleged violation of sanctions against Iran. Mrs. Meng was arrested in Canada. …

It is unprecedented that an officer of a large company is personally indicted for the alleged sanction violations by a subsidiary company:

The US rarely arrests senior businesspeople, US or foreign, for alleged crimes committed by their companies. Corporate managers are usually arrested for their alleged personal crimes (such as embezzlement, bribery or violence) rather than their company’s alleged malfeasance.

Meng is charged with violating US sanctions on Iran. … In 2011, for example, JPMorgan Chase paid US$88.3 million in fines for violating US sanctions against Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Yet chief executive officer Jamie Dimon wasn’t grabbed off a plane and whisked into custody. The U.S. indicted dozens of banks for violating its sanction regime. They had to pay huge fines (pdf) but none of their officers were ever touched. …

this U.S. operation [is] a hostage taking to blackmail China. President Trump confirmed that this is indeed the case:

U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Tuesday he would intervene in the U.S. Justice Department’s case against Meng if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.

The arrest of Meng is but one part of a larger political campaign against China directed out of the office of National Security Advisor John Bolton …

In typical propaganda style the U.S. media depict the Chinese as enemies …

Taken together, the announcements represent a major broadside against China over its mounting aggression against the West and its attempts to displace the United States as the world’s leader in technology ... The actions come amid mounting intelligence showing a sustained Chinese hacking effort devoted to acquiring sophisticated American technologies of all stripes. A number of agencies — including the Justice, State, Treasury and Homeland Security departments — have pushed for a newly aggressive U.S. response. A National Security Council committee coordinated the actions.

One wonders what those "mounting aggressions" are supposed to be. Is the U.S. not constantly spying and hacking for economic for political gain? Other reports today of alleged Chinese hacking are obviously part of the concerted anti-China campaign. As usual no evidence is presented for the vague allegations … The new anti-China campaign follows a similar push of anti-Russian propaganda three month ago. …

The string of U.S. accusations and measures against China are partly to protect the market share of U.S. companies against better and cheaper Chinese products and partly geopolitical. Neither has anything to do with protecting the international rule of law.

After three centuries of anglo-american imperialism the economic center of the world is moving back to the east. … The current U.S. strategy is to restrict China's access to foreign markets, advanced technologies, global banking and higher education. … It is typical for the current U.S. to seek short term advantage while disregarding the long term negative effects of its doing. It is a major reason for China's rise and its future supremacy.

LOL

China has the long term problems and the short term problems:

Charting China's Imminent Implosion

[r3volution 3.0]

In ~5 years, China will polish off many extremely uneconomical US producers.

The socialistic West will be unable to compete with the liberalizing East.

[Swordsmyth]

In ~5 years, China will polish off many extremely uneconomical US producers.

The socialistic West will be unable to compete with the liberalizing East.

The current Chinese regime won't last another 5 years.

[devil21]

I'm struggling to find how US Inc has any legal jurisdiction whatsoever over a foreign national working for a foreign company, arrested in a foreign country.

[AZJoe]

RPI: Ron Unz-Averting World Conflict with China: The PRC Should Retaliate by Targeting Sheldon Adelson's Chinese Casinos

Consider the arrest last week of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei, the world’s largest telecom equipment manufacturer. While flying from Hong Kong to Mexico, Ms. Meng was changing planes in the Vancouver International Airport when she was suddenly detained by the Canadian government on an August US warrant. Although now released on $10 million bail, she still faces extradition to a New York City courtroom, where she could receive up to thirty years in federal prison for allegedly having conspired in 2010 to violate America’s unilateral economic trade sanctions against Iran. …

Although our mainstream media outlets have certainly covered this important story, including front page articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, I doubt most American readers fully recognize the extraordinary gravity of this international incident and its potential for altering the course of world history. As one scholar noted, no event since America’s deliberate 1999 bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade, which killed several Chinese diplomats, has so outraged both the Chinese government and its population. Columbia’s Jeffrey Sachs correctly described it as “almost a US declaration of war on China’s business community.” ..

Huawei ranks as the world’s largest and most advanced telecommunications equipment manufacturer as well as China’s most internationally successful and prestigious company. Ms. Meng is not only a longtime top executive there, but also the daughter of the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, whose enormous entrepreneurial success has established him as a Chinese national hero.

Her seizure on obscure American sanction violation charges while changing planes in a Canadian airport almost amounts to a kidnapping. … how Americans would react if China had seized Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook for violating Chinese law…especially if Sandberg were also the daughter of Steve Jobs. …

Since the end of the Cold War, the American government has become increasingly delusional, regarding itself as the Supreme World Hegemon. As a result, local American courts have begun enforcing gigantic financial penalties against foreign countries and their leading corporations, and I suspect that the rest of the world is tiring of this misbehavior. Perhaps such actions can still be taken against the subservient vassal states of Europe, but by most objective measures, the size of China’s real economy surpassed that of the US several years ago and is now substantially larger, while also still having a far higher rate of growth. …

Normal countries … assume that other countries like the US will also behave in normal ways, and their dumbfounded shock at Ms. Meng’s seizure has surely delayed their effective response. …

Since a natural reaction to international hostage-taking is retaliatory international hostage-taking, the newspapers have reported that top American executives have decided to forego visits to China … These days, General Motors sells more cars in China than in the US, and China is also the manufacturing source of nearly all our iPhones, …

Canada had arrested Ms. Meng on American orders … Once we forgo traditional international practices and adopt the Law of the Jungle, it becomes very important to recognize the true lines of power and control, and Canada is merely acting as an American political puppet in this matter. …

nearly all of America’s leading technology executives are already quite hostile to the Trump Administration …

Indeed, is President Trump himself anything more than a higher-level puppet in this very dangerous affair? World peace and American national security interests are being sacrificed in order to harshly enforce the Israel Lobby’s international sanctions campaign against Iran, … National Security Adviser John Bolton, one of America’s most extreme pro-Israel zealots, had personally given the green light to the arrest. … Trump himself remained entirely unaware of these plans, and Ms. Meng was seized on the same day that he was personally meeting on trade issues with Chinese President Xi. Some have even suggested that the incident was a deliberate slap in Trump’s face. …

Bolton’s apparent involvement underscores the central role of his longtime patron, multi-billionaire casino-magnate Sheldon Adelson, whose enormous financial influence within Republican political circles has been overwhelmingly focused on pro-Israel policy and hostility towards Iran ... he surely must be viewed as the central figure in fostering the political climate that produced the current situation. … I suspect that if Adelson placed a single phone call to the White House, the Trump Administration would order Canada to release Ms. Meng that same day. …

Adelson’s fortune of $33 billion ranks him as the 15th wealthiest man in America, and the bulk of his fortune is based on his ownership of extremely lucrative gambling casinos in Macau, China. In effect, the Chinese government currently has its hands around the financial windpipe of the man ultimately responsible for Ms. Meng’s arrest and whose pro-Israel minions largely control American foreign policy. …

Over the years, Adelson’s Chinese Macau casinos have been involved in all sorts of political bribery scandals, and I suspect it would be very easy for the Chinese government to find reasonable grounds for immediately shutting them down, at least on a temporary basis … How could the international community possibly complain about the Chinese government shutting down some of their own local gambling casinos with a long public record of official bribery and other criminal activity? …

it wouldn’t surprise me if the resulting drop in the stock price of Las Vegas Sands Corp would reduce Adelson’s personal net worth were by $5-10 billion within 24 hours, surely enough to get his immediate personal attention. Meanwhile, threats of a permanent shutdown, perhaps extending to Chinese-influenced Singapore, might lead to the near-total destruction of Adelson’s personal fortune, and similar measures could also be applied as well to the casinos of all the other fanatically pro-Israel American billionaires, who dominate the remainder of gambling in Chinese Macau.

The chain of political puppets responsible for Ms. Meng’s sudden detention is certainly a complex and murky one. But the Chinese government already possesses the absolute power of financial life-or-death over Sheldon Adelson, the man located at the very top of that chain. If the Chinese leadership recognizes that power and takes effective steps, Ms. Meng will immediately be put on a plane back home, carrying the deepest sort of international political apology. And future attacks against Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese technology companies would not be repeated. China actually holds a Royal Flush in this international political poker game. The only question is whether they will recognize the value of their hand. I hope they do for the sake of America and the entire world.

[AZJoe]

Bill Bonner : America’s “Franz Ferdinand” Moment

Whatever good was done by the Trump/Xi trade war truce in Buenos Aires was likely undone by what was done in Vancouver Airport earlier this month. …

The U.S. stock market warmed to the idea of a ceasefire ... Then came word that the U.S. government had arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese technology firm Huawei. The feds got the Canadians to collar the poor woman while she was changing planes in Vancouver. … by the end of the week, investors had lost $1 trillion. …

What was Ms. Meng’s crime? Mass murder? Grand larceny?Nope. Even she didn’t know what the charges were. …

What Ms. Meng is accused of is neither a genuine crime nor a misdemeanor. Instead, she apparently ran afoul of the Deep State’s bogeyman program. Officially, her company is accused of using shell companies to access the Iranian market in defiance of U.S. sanctions on the country. …

it is not enough for the feds to regulate every living creature and every transaction that takes place in the 50 states. They also claim authority over the rest of the world. No money can change hands without the consent of the U.S. … Nobody can trade with a foreign country if it doesn’t meet U.S. approval … And no sparrow can fall anywhere on the planet without a shove from the Pentagon.

Ms. Meng was told to jump. She apparently didn’t jump high enough. … Of course, Ms. Meng has nothing against Iran. China has nothing against Iran. Most of the whole bloomin’ world has nothing against Iran. But the Deep State pretends to protect Americans from bad guys – in this case, Iranians – by imposing sanctions on people all over the Earth. …

imagine what a hullabaloo would follow if the Chinese pulled a similar stunt. Suppose they tried to boss other nations around with a “sanctions” list that included some half a million of the world’s leading business and government officials. And suppose, honoring a Chinese warrant, the authorities in Singapore picked up Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. The Chinese, for example, regard Taiwan as their territory. And they regard the present Taiwanese government as illegitimate traitors. They could easily announce “sanctions” against anyone trading with Taiwan… which would implicate thousands of American businessmen, politicians, and government employees. Then, stopping at Singapore airport for refueling … an executive could be nabbed by the Chinese … The U.S. would be outraged. It could be an Archduke Franz Ferdinand moment – the kind of event that is hard to reconcile with today’s power politics… and hard to ignore or forget. …

In the present case, the Chinese … see the arrest as illegal, high-handed, and a breach of the ceasefire reached only a week earlier. …

The Deep State’s imperial britches are very large … But arresting Ms. Meng may have signaled that the Trump foreign policy team has outgrown them. … the U.S. … has troops in 170 countries. Its government has 20 times the debt it had in 1980. Its people suffer 100 times more regulatory control. … The flab is everywhere – debt, waste, boondoggles, cronies and zombies, regulations, fantasies, absurd myths, fake news, BS statistics, phony money, claptrap wars… and trillions of dollars’ worth of promises that can’t be kept. …

[AZJoe]

The Case of Meng Wanzhou: American Sheriffs Acting Outside of Their Jurisdictions

Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport, while a transit passenger changing planes. … accused by the Trump administration of having used Skycom, a Huawei subsidiary based in Hong Kong, to evade American sanctions against Iran between 2009 and 2014. A British Columbia judge granted Meng bail, set at $7.4 million. She was required to surrender her passports to Canadian authorities. …

Meng stands accused by the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan of violating US trade sanctions on Iran and lying to HSBC Bank in furtherance of the alleged sanctions busting, Donald Trump told Reuters that he may use the arrest of Meng as a bargaining chip with China over current trade negotiations … Essentially, Trump believes Meng to be a US hostage, available to trade off with Beijing in his current Sino-US trade war. …

In June of this year, Trump dropped the threat of US sanctions on the Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE for allegedly selling its products to Iran and North Korea. US firms that supply components to ZTE would have faced possible job layoffs and bankruptcy had ZTE been sanctioned. The ZTE affair, again, showed that the extraterritorial application of US law against companies and individuals with commercial links to Iran is not in the national or economic security interests of the United States, but of Israel and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia.

America’s extraterritorial application of its Iran sanctions laws, which are largely driven by the powerful Israel Lobby … Canada’s acting as Washington’s brigand in seizing Meng, …

The arrest of Meng represents an unusual extraterritorial application of US law to Meng, a foreign national, in a third country ... The extradition of Meng to stand trial in the United States for a Chinese firm’s commercial links with Iran is highly dubious under international law. …

the Trump administration’s unilateral withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement between Iran and China, Russia, and the European Union.

The arrest of Meng also shreds the post-G20 trade war truce recently agreed to by Trump ... Making matters worse, Trump was dining with Xi in Buenos Aires at the very same time that Meng was arrested in Canada. …

Trump warned countries still adhering to the terms of the JCPOA that his administration would criminally sanction them and their companies … The Trump administration’s re-imposed sanctions were pressed by US national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both of whom take their direction from the government of Israel and its powerful interlocutors in Washington’s lobbying …

Another nation that could feel the wrath of Washington is Algeria. Its state-owned oil company, Sonatrach, awarded the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) a $420 million contract to renovate its refinery in Algiers. … Neither Algeria, which maintains friendly relations with Iran, nor CNPC will take kindly to their citizens involved in the deal being arrested and extradited by third parties on flimsy US arrest warrants executed by officials in Washington taking their orders from pro-Israeli influence wielders. Israel and the Trump administration are also exerting pressure on Ethiopia. They are warning EthioTelecom not to award a lucrative cellular network expansion project to Huawei. Another nation worried about the Trump administration’s intentions is the West African nation of Benin. Huawei is installing a fiber-optics network in Benin …

Trump administration officials have also warned South Korea away from a prospective contract for Huawei to install a broadband wireless network in the country. …

In 1909, the famed US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes opined in a case that US laws cannot be applied to other countries. … The United States has not only been acting as the world’s policeman but as judge, jury, and, in many cases, executioner. …

[AZJoe]

The War on Huawei

The Trump administration's conflict with China has little to do with US external imbalances, closed Chinese markets, or even China’s alleged theft of intellectual property. It has everything to do with containing China by limiting its access to foreign markets, advanced technologies, global banking services, and perhaps even US universities.

The arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is a dangerous move by US President Donald Trump’s administration in its intensifying conflict with China. … As with Europe’s great powers back [in 1914], the United States, led by an administration intent on asserting America’s dominance over China, is pushing the world toward disaster.

The context of the arrest matters enormously. The US requested that Canada arrest Meng in the Vancouver airport en route to Mexico from Hong Kong, and then extradite her to the US. Such a move is almost a US declaration of war on China’s business community. Nearly unprecedented …

The US rarely arrests senior businesspeople, US or foreign, for alleged crimes committed by their companies. … Meng is charged with violating US sanctions on Iran. … consider her arrest in the context of the large number of companies, US and non-US, that have violated US sanctions against Iran and other countries. In 2011, for example, JP Morgan Chase paid $88.3 million in fines in 2011 for violating US sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and Sudan. Yet Jamie Dimon wasn’t grabbed off a plane and whisked into custody. And JP Morgan Chase was hardly alone in violating US sanctions. Since 2010, the following major financial institutions paid fines for violating US sanctions: Banco do Brasil, Bank of America, Bank of Guam, Bank of Moscow, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Clearstream Banking, Commerzbank, Compass, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, JP Morgan Chase, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, National Bank of Pakistan, PayPal, RBS (ABN Amro), Société Générale, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Trans-Pacific National Bank (now known as Beacon Business Bank), Standard Chartered, and Wells Fargo. None of the CEOs or CFOs of these sanction-busting banks was arrested and taken into custody for these violations. In all of these cases, the corporation – rather than an individual manager – was held accountable. ... In light of this record, Meng’s arrest is a shocking break with practice. … hold CEOs and CFOs accountable, but start at home in order to avoid hypocrisy, self-interest disguised as high principle, and the risk of inciting a new global conflict.

the US action against Meng is really part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to undermine China’s economy by imposing tariffs, closing Western markets to Chinese high-technology exports, and blocking Chinese purchases of US and European technology companies. … this is part of an economic war on China, and a reckless one at that.

Huawei is one of China’s most important technology companies, and therefore a prime target in Trump administration’s effort to slow or stop China’s advance into several high-technology sectors. America’s motivations in this economic war are partly commercial – to protect and favor laggard US companies … certainly have nothing to do with upholding the international rule of law.

The US is trying to targeting Huawei especially because of the company’s success in marketing cutting-edge 5G technologies globally. The US claims the company poses a specific security risk through hidden surveillance capabilities in its hardware and software. Yet the US government has provided no evidence for this claim. …

When global trade rules obstruct Trump’s gangster tactics, then the rules have to go … US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted as much last week in Brussels. “Our administration,” he said, is “lawfully exiting or renegotiating outdated or harmful treaties, trade agreements, and other international arrangements that don’t serve our sovereign interests, or the interests of our allies.” …

The unprecedented arrest of Meng is even more provocative because it is based on US extra-territorial sanctions, that is, the claim by the US that it can order other countries to stop trading with third parties such as Cuba or Iran. The US would certainly not tolerate China or any other country telling American companies with whom they can or cannot trade. …

UN Security Council Resolution 2231 calls on all countries to drop sanctions on Iran as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Yet the US – and only the US – now rejects the Security Council’s role in such matters. The Trump administration, not Huawei or China, is today’s greatest threat to the international rule of law …

[AZJoe]

Michael Snyder: Sabotage - The Deep State Has Destroyed Trump’s Chances Of A Trade Deal With China, And The Stock Market Is Tanking As A Result

Somebody out there apparently does not want President Trump to make a trade deal with China. Just after U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to suspend the implementation of new tariffs for 90 days, one of China’s most important tech executives was literally kidnapped as she was changing planes in Canada … at the urging of U.S. authorities … the plan is to extradite her to the United States where she will apparently face charges relating to Huawei’s evasion of U.S. sanctions against Iran. When Trump was negotiating face to face with the Chinese, he was not aware that this was taking place. So now all of Trump’s hard work is out the window, and our relations with the Chinese are probably the worst that they have been since the Korean War. …

But kidnapping a high profile member of Chinese tech loyalty and throwing her in prison is something that the Chinese will not forgive. … Just imagine how Americans would feel if China kidnapped a high profile member of our tech royalty and multiply that outrage by about 10.
Until Meng Wanzhou is let go, there is not going to be any deal with China. … Huawei … are essentially China’s version of Apple or Microsoft. …

So what in the world is the Deep State thinking? Are we going to start regularly kidnapping individuals that work for foreign corporations that have somehow violated U.S. laws? And should Americans expect the same treatment? How would you like it if your mother or daughter was kidnapped while changing planes in a foreign country because the company that she works for had committed some sort of violation? …

this is a move that is not just going to ensure a nightmarish trade war with China. Ultimately, things could get a whole lot worse than that. At this point, the Chinese have summoned the U.S. ambassador and have formally demanded Meng Wanzhou’s release … It would be wonderful if Meng Wanzhou was released, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. So now our relationship with China is officially in the toilet, and this is one of the factors that could push stock prices much lower …

so few people seem to understand the gravity of the situation that we are facing. Our stores are filled with cheap products that come from China and they own more than a trillion dollars of our national debt. The two largest economies in the entire world are decoupling from one another, and if the Chinese conclude that they are not able to salvage the relationship then they will rapidly become an exceedingly dangerous enemy.
This is a major turning point, and the kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou has put us on a road that doesn’t lead anywhere good. Hopefully things can rapidly be fixed, because if not, events are likely to start escalating quite dramatically.

[AZJoe]

Meng Wanzhou is America's Jamal Khashoggi

While Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was ambushed and murdered shortly after he entered his country’s consulate in Istanbul on the 2nd of October, just under two months later on the 1st of December, the US did something to an innocent Chinese businesswoman that in terms of its deviousness, seriousness and wickedness was highly comparable to what Saudi authorities did to Khashoggi. While Meng is luckily still alive, this is largely where the contextual differences between the two incidents end. …

Donald Trump spoke off the cuff to journalists and said that the Saudi journalist’s murder was “the worst cover-up in history”. At the time Trump spoke those words he may well have been correct – but he is not correct any longer. Now the infamous distinction of staging the worst cover-up in history belongs to the United States. …

US authorities … orchestrated the kidnapping and detention of Meng Wanzhou within the framework of such a laughable cover-up that one might suspect it was organised by someone with the mind of a fool and the heart of a knave. While Meng was detained in Vancouver, Canada on the 1st of December as Donald Trump and his closest advisers was meeting to discuss trade issues with Chinese President Xi Jinping … the wider world did not know of Meng’s plight until several days later because of an attempt by the Canadian authorities to force the local press to suppress the story … When the wider world found out that a prominent Chinese businesswoman … was kidnapped and detained by Canadian authorities on the order of the United States regarding “allegations” that her company has subsidiaries that had traded products with China’s well known Iranian partners, it became clear that an innocent woman’s freedom was deprived for purely political reasons and thus Meng became the first human casualty of the US instigated trade war against China. …

US National Security Adviser John Bolton … claiming it was a geo-political issue of national security coordinated between an overtly politicized intelligence/security sector and judicial officials. Bolton … admitted that he was aware of what was being planned even before Meng was seized at an airport in western Canada. Days later, Donald Trump let the cat fully out of the bag when he stated that if the US and China reach what he considers a favorable trade deal, he may order Meng to be set free. All of this must have left a great deal of egg on Justin Trudeau’s face after his government ran out of the gates claiming that Meng’s detention was apolitical.

The changing stories of US and Canadian officials regarding Meng is highly reminiscent of Saudi Arabia’s string of changing explanations for what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. …
While Trump has let the penny drop regarding what the rest of the world always knew was the clear political imprisonment of an innocent woman, public opinion in Canada appears to be turning against Washington over the matter in the same way that after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder was revealed by Turkey, many sectors of public option in the western world and parts of the Middle East turned against Saudi Arabia.

Canada’s Globe and mail newspaper is about as middle of the road/mainstream media as one can get in Canada and as of the 14th of December, its opinion section is filled with no less than two editorials that are pro-Meng and anti-US. … on social media … more and more Canadians are expressing their shame at the fact that their government so readily capitulated to Washington on a matter regarding the violation of an innocent woman’s human rights. … many average Canadians with no previously held strong views about China feel that Ottawa behaved shamefully for kowtowing to the United States on an issue that has gained Canada nothing … other than a boycott of Canadian goods …

Just as many in Europe and the US started to question the loyalty of their leaders to the Saudi establishment … many Canadians are doing the same in respect of Justin Trudeau’s government’s closeness with that of Donald Trump and the broader US security-industrial complex. …

the US and Canada have conspired to imprison an innocent woman for admittedly political reasons while depriving her of much needed medical assistance prior to her temporary release on bail … the US and Canada now need to account for their blatant human rights violations that have been compounded by a cover-up …

[AZJoe]

Next Generation 5G and the US-China “Cellphone War”: The Arrest of Meng Wanzhou

The unspoken US policy objective behind the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on trumped up charges, consists in breaking China’s technological lead in wireless telecommunications.

What is at stake is a coordinated US and allied intelligence initiative to ban China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd from the “next generation” state of the art 5G global mobile phone network. The intelligence operation is led by “Five Eyes”, a so-called “intelligence-sharing alliance to combat espionage” between the US and its four (junior) Anglo-Saxon partners: UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. …

On July 17, the spy chiefs from the “Five Eyes” nations travelled from Ottawa to Nova Scotia for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. … The meeting with the “Five Eyes” spy chiefs hosted by Trudeau was … casually described by The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) as “an informal evening after intense talks in nearby Ottawa”. Nearby? The encounter with Canada’s Prime Minister was neither informal nor spontaneous. His presence at that meeting served to provide a “political green-light” to the “Five Eyes” “intelligence campaign” against China:

“Trudeau, … dropped in on the gathering to share some thoughts about geopolitical threats [from China and Russia].
In the months that followed that July 17 dinner, an unprecedented campaign has been waged by those present – Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK – to block Chinese tech giant Huawei from supplying equipment for their next-generation wireless networks.
This increasingly muscular posture towards Beijing culminated in last week’s arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver, over alleged breaches of US sanctions with Iran. …

CIA Director Gina Haspel and Britain’s MI6 Chief Michael Younger were in attendance. The intent of this meeting was crystal clear. The arrest of Meng Wanzhou was part of a broader intelligence strategy directed against China which had been planned well in advance. …

Screen-scan of Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2018 …

It’s what you call “Fair Competition”. Bring in the Spy Chiefs! … The US based telecom conglomerates are up against the wall. The industry is in a shambles. … the US no longer produces smart phones. Its manufacturing base in Silicon Valley has been closed down. US smart phone companies increasingly rely on China not only for cellphone production but also for the development of intellectual property.

China is not only the largest producer of cellphones Worldwide, it is a leader in wireless technology. According to an August 2018 report by Deloitte Consulting:

“China is winning the race against the United States to build a faster nationwide wireless network that uses 5G technology … Accordingly, countries that adopt 5G first are expected to experience disproportionate gains in macroeconomic impact compared to those that lag … U.S. companies have been sounding the alarm over a purported race against China over 5G, perhaps playing to the fears and strategic desires of the Trump White House. (Fortune, August 7, 2018) …

The complicity of the Canadian government in the arrest of CFO Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the Trump White House is reprehensible. It puts in jeopardy Canada’s longstanding economic, social and cultural ties with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). …

The arrest of Meng Wanzhou on December 1 in Vancouver coincided with the evening dinner meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G-20 summit. … Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau had advanced knowledge of the arrest and did nothing to prevent it from happening: “…He didn’t notify the Chinese side. Instead, he let this kind of nasty thing to happen and assisted the US side’s unilateral hegemonic behavior” … Prime Minister Trudeau had already granted the green-light to the “Five Eyes” intelligence chiefs at the July 17 secret meeting in Nova Scotia. …

[enhanced_deficit]

There might be a connection with boycotts of Apple in China:


AAPL issues rare revision to earnings guidance, lowering expectations due to ‘fewer iPhone upgrades’ & China struggles

Chance Miller
Jan. 2nd 2019 1:37 pm PT


Apple shares were halted this evening ahead of the market’s close. CNBC was first to report on the development. Shortly thereafter, Apple published a “Letter from Tim Cook to Apple investors” in which Cook announced a rare AAPL earnings revision for the first fiscal quarter of 2019.


This is what Apple is now forecasting:

• Revenue of approximately $84 billion
• Gross margin of approximately 38 percent
• Operating expenses of approximately $8.7 billion
• Other income/(expense) of approximately $550 million
• Tax rate of approximately 16.5 percent before discrete items

.....


Trading of AAPL has since resumed. The stock is down nearly 8 percent in after-hours trading, falling to around $145 per share. Shares of Apple suppliers are also down, as reported by Reuters.




https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/02/apple...2019-earnings/

[AZJoe]

There might be a connection with boycotts of Apple in China:
AAPL issues rare revision to earnings guidance, lowering expectations due to ‘fewer iPhone upgrades’ & China struggles ...

Apple shares were halted this evening ahead of the market’s close. ... Trading of AAPL has since resumed. The stock is down nearly 8 percent in after-hours trading, falling to around $145 per share. Shares of Apple suppliers are also down, as reported by Reuters.
https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/02/apple...2019-earnings/

Could be. This is from Business Insider today -

Apple plunges $64 billion, dragging global stocks after shock sales warning

global markets were enduring more turbulence Thursday after Apple warned investors that sales were slowing in China … "we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China," Apple said after the close of trading on Wednesday. Apple plunged 8.5% in the first few minutes after the open at 9.30 a.m. ET (2.30 p.m. GMT).

Apple's shock revenue-guidance downgrade, along with troubling comments from CEO Tim Cook about the economic impact of the US-China trade war, added to fears that had already gripped investors. …

Thursday's market moves extend a brutal start to the new year after 2018 ended on a sour note for markets. The S&P 500 fell 6.2% in 2018, booking its worst year since the financial crisis and worst December since the Great Depression. …

The moves … saw investors pull money rapidly out of Western currencies like the dollar and push it into the perceived safe haven of the yen. … The dollar tumbled to an intraday low of 104.96 yen, its lowest since March. …

[devil21]

^^^^^^^^
Yeah, that tends to happen when your products are blocked from sales entirely in a country of 1.4 billion people.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/10/appl...one-sales.html

[enhanced_deficit]

China Sends Military to Intercept U.S. Navy in South China Sea As Tensions Rise

[enhanced_deficit]

U.S. To Proceed With China Telco Giant Huawei CFO's Extradition

Updated on January 22, 2019, 3:00 AM EST

U.S. Said to Prepare Trump Order to Restrict Chinese Telecoms

The U.S. has indicated it will pursue the extradition of a top Huawei Technologies Co. executive, Canada’s ambassador to Washington said, suggesting the case might not be resolved in trade talks with China.
Ambassador David MacNaughton confirmed in an email Monday that U.S. officials have continued to signal an intent to follow through on the case against Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou. The Globe and Mail newspaper earlier cited an interview with MacNaughton saying that the U.S. has notified the Canadian government of plans to file a formal extradition request before a Jan. 30 deadline.



Meng Wanzhou
Photographer: Ben Nelms/Bloomberg

Meng -- the daughter of the Chinese telecommunication giant’s founder -- was arrested at the behest of the U.S. last month over allegations of bank fraud related to sanctions against Iran. She has denied wrongdoing and is restricted to staying in Vancouver while awaiting further court hearings.
The case -- and China’s subsequent detention of two Canadian nationals -- has prompted a diplomatic feud between Ottawa and Beijing, with each side accusing the other of arbitrary law enforcement. The dispute was complicated by a Trump interview with Reuters on Dec. 11, in which he said he would intervene in the case, if he “thought it was necessary” to close a trade deal with China.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...=technology-vp



Related

Chinese companies rally around Huawei after CFO arrest
Businesses also urge employees to boycott US rival Apple
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trad...ter-CFO-arrest

Canada says 13 citizens detained in China since Huawei CFO arrest
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/cana...fo-arrest.html

China accuses Canada of 'white supremacy' over the detention of Huawei CFO
Jan. 10, 2019

China and Canada are caught in a diplomatic spat over the detention of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei, in early December. This composite shows Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right). Chris Wattie/Reuters; Nicolas Asfouri/Pool Photo via AP
https://www.businessinsider.com/chin...tention-2019-1

[enhanced_deficit]

Could Americans be caught in the crossfire of an extradition request for Huawei’s Sabrina Meng Wanzhou?

• Retaliation against US nationals a possibility but unlikely to match action against Canadians, observers say

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 January, 2019, 6:58pm

Comment: 29
Sarah Zheng

Canadians may be in the firing line now but the US nationals could be at risk as the extradition saga involving Chinese tech executive Sabrina Meng Wanzhou unfolds, observers say.
Beijing warned Washington on Tuesday against proceeding with its formal extradition request for Meng, chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies, which US officials are expected to file before the January 30 deadline.
If Canada extradites Meng to the US to face charges, Americans could face repercussions, albeit to a lesser degree, according to observers.
Since Meng’s arrest last month, ties between China and Canada have been damaged over what has been seen as Beijing’s retaliatory detentions of two Canadians – former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor – on vague national security charges. Canada’s envoy to China, John McCallum, warned last week that the actions could taint Beijing’s global reputation.
Observers said China had reacted more aggressively to the case of Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, because the company was a high-profile symbol of Chinese national pride.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/dipl...equest-huaweis

[enhanced_deficit]

U.S.-China trade tensions deepen with Meng extradition request

By Tonda MacCharles Ottawa Bureau
Wed., Jan. 23, 2019

OTTAWA—The head of the U.S. China Business Council says he is concerned about China’s “nationalistic response” to the extradition arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Craig Allen, a former U.S. diplomat and now president of the Washington-based group that promotes bilateral trade with China, said in an interview with the Star that China’s threats against the U.S. and arrests of two Canadians are especially worrying.


China has stepped up criticism of the U.S. over its demand that Canada extradite Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. But the U.S. says it will pursue her extradition and will file papers to Canada by Jan. 30. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press)
“We condemn the abuse of law against individuals for political purposes,” Allen said.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/fed...n-request.html

[Swordsmyth]

In an unprecedented move, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said he had fired his ambassador to China, who prompted a political furor with comments about Huawei's high-profile extradition case.John McCallum had embarrassed Trudeau's Liberal government by saying Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou could make a strong argument against being sent to the United States.
Opposition legislators and former ambassadors accused McCallum of unacceptable political interference in an affair which has badly damaged relations between Canada and China.


"Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallum's resignation as Canada's ambassador to China," Trudeau said in a statement that did not explain his reasons.
Veteran diplomats and experts told Reuters it was the first time a Canadian ambassador had ever been officially fired.
Trudeau said as recently as Thursday that he had no plans to replace McCallum, who apologized the same day for his remarks earlier in the week.
But the Toronto Star newspaper on Friday quoted the envoy as saying that if Washington dropped the extradition request "that would be great for Canada". McCallum, 68, a long-time former Liberal cabinet minister, is not a trained diplomat.
Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who had served two postings in China, said McCallum's comments on Meng possibly avoiding extradition had signaled to Beijing that its hard line tactics were working.
"He really made it untenable for the prime minister to sustain him (in his post) for any length of time and he had to go," Burton said by telephone, suggesting Trudeau should quickly appoint a special envoy to handle the dispute.
Spokespeople for Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland declined to comment when asked about the dismissal.
Andrew Scheer, leader of the official opposition Conservative Party, said in a tweet that Trudeau "should have fired his ambassador the moment he interfered in this case" and accused the prime minister of weakness and indecision.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/canada-pm-fir...--finance.html

[Swordsmyth]

As previewed earlier, after the close U.S. prosecutors filed criminal charges against Huawei, China’s largest smartphone maker, alleging it stole trade secrets from an American rival and committed bank fraud by violating sanctions against doing business with Iran. In a 13-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon, the government alleged Huawei, two affiliated companies and its chief financial officer engaged in fraud and conspiracy in connection with deals in Iran.

A separate 10-count indictment in Seattle accused the company of stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile USA Inc. and offering bonuses to employees who succeeded in getting technology from rivals.
The criminal case against Huawei first emerged in 2014, when T-Mobile USA sued the Chinese telecom giant, and three years later, a federal jury in Seattle found Huawei liable for both breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. A Bloomberg source said that T-Mobile’s claims regarding the theft of its technology caught the attention of federal authorities in the Western District of Washington.
In what may be the first instance of robotic espionage, T-Mobile said Huawei sent its engineers to T-Mobile’s Bellevue, Washington, facility to see a robot, called "Tappy," which simulates smartphone use. T-Mobile said in its lawsuit that Huawei was able to use stolen parts from the robot to "develop, improve and troubleshoot its own robot."
In the indictment, the U.S. explained in detail how Huawei's engineer allegedly stole information related to "Tappy'' - two employees of Huawei USA improperly abused their badges to let the engineer, identified as F.W. in the indictment, into the T-Mobile lab where Tappy was located. A T-Mobile employee discovered F.W. there without permission and told him to leave, according to the indictment.
But perhaps more importantly, the DOJ formally announced it was seeking the extradition of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company’s founder, who was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1 on allegations that she committed fraud to sidestep sanctions against Iran. She has since become a flash-point in trade tensions between the U.S. and China; her release by the US and Canada was expected by some commentators who were confident the US would send a signal of goodwill to the US; instead Trump appears to be escalating the crackdown against Chinese technological theft.
Meng remains free in Vancouver, staying at her $4.2 million mansion with GPS monitoring, after posting bail of C$10 million ($7.5 million) as she fights extradition to the U.S. to face criminal charges.
The U.S., which had requested Canadian authorities arrest Meng, had to submit a formal extradition request by Jan. 30, which it did today. Canada’s justice minister now has up to 30 days to assess it. If she issues an "authority to proceed," that means Canada is officially moving to extradition hearings. If so, they would likely be scheduled months later, even as relations between the US and China implode.
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More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...adition-cfo-us

[Swordsmyth]

The extradition hearing for a top Huawei executive at the center of a diplomatic row between Ottawa and Beijing was pushed back to March on Tuesday, after the US unveiled sweeping charges against her and the Chinese tech giant.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/huawei-ex...161333281.html

[Swordsmyth]

Canada allows extradition of Huawei CEO to go forward.