Hostage rescue: China forced the US to back away from the "Huawei princess"

China and Canada made a mutual "hostage exchange" last Friday, September 24, calling things by their proper names. Chief Financial Officer of Huawei Technologies Co. Meng Wanzhou returned to China after almost three years of ordeal in the Canadian "captivity" , and the citizens of the Country of the Maple Leaf, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, detained by Beijing shortly after her arrest, avoided long terms in China for espionage — and also returned to their homeland.

Formally, in both cases, the accused admitted their guilt, but no one was interested in this anymore. And although the Chinese deny the connection between the two episodes, everyone understands that the stories are interconnected. And moreover, that Beijing has achieved success in this three-year confrontation by using "innovative" tactics to free its citizen from overseas prisons (even if the de facto daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has lived all this time not behind bars, but in her husband's house in Vancouver).

In Washington — the real beneficiary of the detention of Meng — there is now a big noise about this exchange. Republicans, through the mouth of Senator Mark Rubio, have already accused President Joe Biden of being unable to resist the "Chinese threat" and of a "dangerously soft" approach to Beijing. And the main mouthpiece of the Democrats, the New York Times, is lamenting  the complete success of the Chinese feint with the retaliatory arrest of two Michaels.

Let's us recall that Meng Wanzhou, who was detained (with a bunch of violations, such as interrogation and search before arrest) on December 1, 2018 at the Vancouver airport at the request of Washington, was charged with violating US anti-Iranian sanctions and misleading HSBC bank about Huawei's relations with Tehran through a branch of a company called Skycom.

In reality, the matter was, of course, not at all about Iran, but about 5G. More precisely, in the battle for a multibillion-dollar market and, more importantly, for technological superiority in the critical field of security, which China's Huawei won, and the Americans and the West as a whole lost. Thus, just five days after Meng's detention, the British BBC openly admitted: yes, there is a direct connection here, the incident in Vancouver is part of the West's struggle against China for future decades of hegemony in ultra high-speed mobile communication technologies.

Moreover, the intelligence agencies of the "Five Eyes" - an alliance of special services of English-speaking countries: the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - were the first to sound the alarm about Chinese superiority in 2018. Already back then, Washington, Canberra and Wellington banned the purchase of Huawei equipment for their national 5G networks.

It got to the point that the US authorities told their IT companies to cut off any relations with Huawei, and Google even refused to update the Android operating system and access to its app store. This paradoxically played into the hands of the Chinese, who were actively engaged in import substitution, including through mobile operating systems.

Now, enjoying the effect of its victory, Beijing has even extended something like a "hand of friendship" to Washington. At the same time, the corresponding statement in the Global Times, the printed organ of the CCP for relations with the English-speaking audience of the planet, was emphatically submitted from a position of strength.

Like saying that on such a joyful day, some in Washington (a reference to Rubio) behave like "contemptible scoundrels". Although we have just shown you that it is not necessary to persecute Chinese citizens and force them to self-incrimination, as in the case of Meng. If you think that you have broken the perseverance of Huawei, then you are wrong to think so.

If you continue to persist, then we, China, will think about retaliatory steps. What about our sanctions against those who supply weapons to Taiwan? So cool down and let's trade calmly.

Do the Chinese trust the US? Not one bit! Just look at how exactly the chartered CCA552 with Meng Wanzhou on board flew from Vancouver to Shenzhen in South China (where Huawei's headquarters is located).

Instead of the standard flight along the shortest route, over Alaska and Japan, the liner immediately headed for the North Pole, as far as possible from the American border and from Alaska. And in such a way, through the territory of Russia and Mongolia, it flew to China, spending three hours more time on the flight than usual. Because, is known, it's not only Belarus who is able to force civilian aircraft to land.

Let's summarise. China has just won a brilliant foreign policy victory, not only forcing the Canadians to release an important hostage, but also showing the whole world: just try to dare to grab a citizen of the Middle Kingdom! Now Beijing, from the position of the winner, pats "Sleepy Joe" on the back: old man, enough fighting, let's do business, as you wanted it.

And all this is happening in the midst of a trade and technological war between the United States and China, in which the former discovered their vulnerability and lack of leverage, and the latter — their willingness to achieve their goals by any means.