Washington’s move to stifle Huawei will undermine itself
On Friday last week, reports showed that US IT company Cisco sent an email to its employees over restrictions on their future travel to China out of concern for Beijing’s “retaliation measures.” Although Cisco later denied the story, it shows that arresting a Huawei executive has created a climate of fear, even among American companies.
In the end, is the US threatening Chinese companies or its own enterprises?
Washington is bringing terrorism to business competition. Nothing better captures the trend than the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei.
No matter how far US domestic law can reach – whether it can be applied to another nation’s citizen or whether Huawei did violate US law – there has never been an incident in modern times quite like this of a country using mafia-style tactics: kidnapping an executive of an international corporation and holding her hostage as a political tool.
The US claims Meng was arrested for sanctions-breaking business with Iran. But a wide range of companies, quite a few of them US allies, have been operating on Iranian soil in the face of US sanctions. Many were fined. No executives were seized.
Why is Meng being treated differently? Because Huawei, an outstanding representative of China’s high-tech companies, has long been a thorn in US flesh. As a leading giant of global communication equipment suppliers, Huawei is expected to lead the global race for 5G networks. In the face of China’s technological innovation and upgraded manufacturing, Washington has gone berserk. As Bloomberg pointed out: “No company better personifies the perceived trade threat than Huawei.”
Washington has stopped being reasonable and is using the arrest as an attempt to thwart Huawei’s future development. The primary purpose is to scare off US companies and companies from other nations from using Huawei technology, elbowing Huawei out of the future global 5G system.
The US should be reminded that when it reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran and threatened its allies to follow suit, the EU suggested the move jeopardized international security. “We believe that it is and has to be up to the Europeans in this case to decide with whom to trade,” said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini.
And if Washington’s new terror tactic prevails in the business world, other countries will take similar action to target any company they want, using the excuse of their domestic laws. Business practice will be replaced by hooliganism. All the companies in the world will be under threat.