Meng Wanzhou (right)
Meng Wanzhou, the CFO, is no ordinary person; known as the "Princess of China," she's also the daughter of Huawei's founder, who is a billionaire and a legend who spent 15 years in China's army (PLA) as a technology specialist. Think of him as a Chinese Steve Jobs with an extra dose of patriotism.
Huawei itself is a global company with 18,000 employees and a revenue of $100+ billion. It is a leader in many areas of technology (more on that later).
First, let's take a look at the charges against Meng:
Apparently, Huawei sold computers to Iran in violation of the new sanctions passed by the US in 2012. And specifically, the CFO allegedly lied to HSBC bank in 2013 about Huawei's relationship with a Hong Kong company (SkyCom).
Even if all the allegations are true, can the US just arrest her?
Two days ago, the EU announced that it will ignore US sanctions and continue to do business with Iran! Specifically, three big countries - UK, Germany and France - will bypass the US dollar and US banks to trade goods and services with Iran. So is the US going to arrest May, Macron and Merkel next??
Unilateral and extraterritorial US sanctions are against international laws, but the US does it anyways, because ... it's the super power.
Also, many major European banks traded with Iran after Obama's sanctions. In the end, they got caught, since they used US banks for transferring payments. But no European executive got arrested, and the banks simply got fined. For example:
Two reasons: Technology and Geopolitics
Tech War: Huawei's star has been rising exponentially over the last decade. Here are some examples of its technological prowess:
- In 2018, Huawei sold more than 200 million smartphones and took over Apple as the #2 vendor. It wants to overtake Samsung within 2-3 years.
- Huawei's phones are consistently ranked as one of the best in the world even by US analysts and US consumer magazines. When Apple's most expensive phones have 11 MP cameras and Huawei's phones have 40 MP cameras, the winner is obvious.
- Huawei became the #1 telecom infrastructure provider, beating Ericsson and Nokia.
- Huawei has become the leader in 5G and has released the world's first chip-set for 5G base stations. On Feb 25, Huawei will announce a foldable 5G phone at MWC 2019. The phone is based on Huawei's own Kirin 980 chipset and Balong 5000 modem (Note: no US technology). Kirin 980 is also the world's first commercial 7nm system-on-chip (SOC). For AI tasks such as image recognition, Kirin 980 is twice as fast as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 and 3x as fast as Apple's A11.
- But 5G is more than smartphones. 5G is going to transform the world and will enable the IoT (Internet of Things), Smart Cities, Smart Manufacturing, Autonomous Vehicles, AR/VR etc. Huawei has already installed 10,000 5G stations in China and has contracts with 22 different carriers from 66 different countries to implement the 5G infrastructure.
- Huawei is also pioneering in AI semiconductor chips (called "Ascend") and is challenging Qualcomm and Nvidia.
- Huawei claims to have beaten Intel with the world's fastest server CPU - "Kunpeng 920"; and is getting into cloud computing as well.
So, basically, the problem with Huawei is that it has become a threat to the profits of western corporations. That's the first reason behind all the demonization.
And how did Huawei become a leader? By spending 10-15% of its revenue on R&D; and by publishing more patents than Apple, Google, Intel, Qualcomm etc.
So the US argument boils down to "We can spy" but "Others cannot spy"!
Geopolitics is like middle school - there will always be plenty of hypocrisy, double standards, gossips, slandering, back-stabbing and bullying.
Going Forward
Expect the tech war and geopolitical struggle to continue. Chinese technology will probably soon rule most of the developing nations in Asia, Africa and even much of Latin America. For example, Chinese smartphones have captured 60% of India's market, which is the second largest in the world. If China can supply better products at cheaper prices, why would developing nations reject them? They will be spied on by either the US/EU team or China. Do they really care?
As for Meng Wanzhou, my prediction is that China will promise massive purchases of soybeans and oil ... and Trump will release her in a couple of months.
Reader Comments
That's 'free trade' for ya: civilized as long as 'we rule'.
I hope the author is right that the costs of her ransom will be met by preferential trade deals for the US but for how long? One Year? Two Years? What will the rest of the world say when they see America acting outside its own borders through submissive Anglosphere countries to effect its lawless ends and increases its share of international trade? Who will be next?