The detention of Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada has prompted an immediate retaliation from Beijing. Speaking to Sputnik, CCTV senior editor and political analyst Tom McGregor explained why China cracked down on Ottawa instead of Washington, which had issued the warrant to arrest Meng.
Beijing and Ottawa found themselves entangled in a diplomatic crisis following the arrest of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou over the alleged violations of anti-Iranian sanctions in Vancouver on 1 December at the request of US law enforcement officials
It is believed that Kovrig and Spavor have fallen prey to the Sino-Canadian spat over Meng’s detention. As for McIver, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asserted to the press that her arrest had not been connected to the Huawei CFO’s case.
According to the commentator, it appears that Beijing did not intend to tolerate Trudeau’s irresponsible approach to Sino-Canadian affairs, “which had sparked an international crisis of mammoth proportions”. “So, it seemed as a foregone conclusion that if there ever be a day when China-Canada ties fall apart, Chinese police officers were waiting in anxious anticipation to take Kovrig into custody due to his questionable background of engaging in anti-China activities in the country”, McGregor opined.
McGregor reiterated his assumption that Donald Trump has nothing to do with Meng’s arrest. It was reported that the Huawei senior executive faced charges from the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
“Beijing sees that this was a foolish Deep State stunt supported by Trudeau and hence does not intend to respond in a retaliatory measure against Trump when he’s not at fault for what had happened”, the commentator suggested. “This is an issue of fairness. Trudeau is to blame for the incident and must accept the consequences over his prior actions”.
It seems rather symbolic that Meng was detained the same night when President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump agreed on a trade truce at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, it later turned out that the warrant had been issued by the New York Court on 22 August 2018.
It does not appear that Beijing is going to disrupt the negotiation process with Washington. On Thursday, China’s state-run Sinograin signalled that it had recently bought over 1.5 million tonnes of US soybeans from the United States.
Still, McGregor doesn’t believe this is the case: “Good luck trying to stop the rise of China, need I say more?” the analyst said. “But let’s wait and see if China does indeed narrow US-China trade imbalances during the 90-day trade truce, before it’s time for me to analyze what lies ahead for Trump-Xi trade talks starting in March 2019”.