Jeffrey Middot; saxophone
The arrest of Huawei Corporation's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is a dangerous measure taken by the US President Trump administration in the increasing conflict with China.If history is like Mark Middot; Mark Twain's famous sayings say often rhyme, then our time is increasingly reminiscent of the period before 1914.Just like the European powers of that year, the United States, led by the government, which aims to dominate the relationship with China, is pushing the world to disaster.
It is very important to understand the ins and outs of the arrest.The United States asked Canada to arrest her on the way to Mexico from Vancouver to Mexico from Hong Kong, and then extradited her to the United States.This is called the United States to declare war on the Chinese business community.This is almost unprecedented, and it will make American merchants go abroad and face greater risks to other countries take similar actions.
The United States rarely arrests themselves in the United States or foreigners because of their suspected crimes.Corporate managers are usually arrested for individual suspected crimes (such as corruption, bribery or violence), rather than illegal behavior suspected of their affiliated enterprises.Of course, corporate managers should take responsibility for the illegal behavior of their enterprises, including being accused of criminal charges;For the government, business, and the public, it is an amazing provocation.
Meng Wanzhou was accused of violating the US sanctions against Iran, but the problem is that there are still many (US or non -US) companies that also violate the US sanctions on Iran and other countries.For example, in 2011, Morgan Chase paid a fine of 88.3 million US dollars for violating the US sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Sudan. His chief executive CEO Jamie Dimon was not caught and detained from the plane.
Morgan Chase is not the only company that violates US sanctions.Since 2010, the major financial institutions that have been fined for violations of US sanctions have been: Bank of Brazil, Bank of America, Guima Bank, Moscow Bank, Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank, Barclays Bank, Bank of France, Mingxun Bank, German Commercial Bank, Spanish Foreign Characteristics, French Agricultural Credit Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Bank, Dutch International Group, Italy Union St. Paul Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Abu Dhabi National Bank, Pakistan National Bank, Paypal, Royal Bank of Scotch (Bank of Dutch), FranceIndustrial Bank, Toronto Daoming Bank, Cross -Pacific State Bank (now renamed Lighthouse Commercial Bank), Standard Chartered Bank and Wells Fargo.
These chief executives or chief financial officers who destroy sanctions were arrested and detained for these illegal acts.In all these cases, companies are held accountable, not an executive.These people also did not take responsibility for the universal illegal acts before and after the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008; according to recent statistics, the bank paid a total of $ 243 billion in fines for this.According to this record, Meng Wanzhou was arrested and subverted the previous approach.Yes, we must investigate the responsibility of the CEO and Chief Financial Officer, but we must first start from the country, so as not to disguise hypocrisy into the principle of preferential prefecture and trigger a new global conflict.
Obviously, the United States' actions against Meng Wanzhou are actually a part of the Trump administration closing the Western market to China's high -tech exports and preventing Chinese and European technology companies from cracking down on the Chinese economy.EssenceIt can be said without exaggeration that this is part of the economic war against China, and it is a war that ignores the consequences.
Huawei is one of the most important technology companies in China, so it is the main goal of the Trump administration to slow down or prevent China from entering several high -tech fields.The motivation for the United States to launch this economic war, part of the business purpose, in order to protect and support those backward American companies, and part of the geopolitical purpose.These two points are obviously not related to the maintenance of international rule of law.
The United States is specifically targeted at Huawei because the company has achieved outstanding results in promoting cutting -edge 5G communication technology worldwide.The United States claims that Huawei's hidden monitoring functions in their hardware and software constitute a specific security risk, but failed to provide evidence that support this statement.
The British Financial Times recently published an article on Huawei ’s criticism.After admitting that unless you are lucky enough, you can get a needle in the sea, and you cannot obtain the specific evidence of the information and communication technology being disturbed, the author simply claims that you will not risk hand over your security to potential competitors.In other words, although we can't really point out Huawei's improper behavior, we should still include it on a blacklist.
According to Trump, if the global trade rules have hindered his hooligan tactics, these rules should be removed.US Secretary of State Pompeo also acknowledged this in Brussels in early December.He said: Our government is legally withdrawn or re -negotiating those treasury, trade agreements and other international agreements that do not meet our sovereign interests or the interests of allies.However, before exiting these agreements, the US government had destroyed them through reckless unilateral actions.
Unprecedented Meng Wanzhou's arrest operation is even more provocative, because it is based on US sanctions based on the United States, that is, the United States claims that it can order other countries to stop trade with third parties such as Cuba or Iran.The United States must not tolerate China or any other country that it can be told by US companies that it may not be able to trade with anyone.
For non -state sanctions (such as US sanctions on Chinese companies), it should not be performed by only one country, but shall be implemented based on the agreement reached by the United Nations Security Council.In this regard, the resolution of the United Nations Security Council No. 2231 calls on all countries to abandon Iran as part of the Iranian nuclear agreement in 2015.However, only the United States now refuses to let the Security Council play a role in such issues.The Trump administration is the biggest threat to international rule of law and even global peace, not Huawei or China.
Author Jeffrey D.sachs is a professor of Sustainable Development and Health Policy and Management of Columbia University. He is also the director of the Columbia Sustainable Development Center and the United Nations Sustainable Development Plan Network.
English Title: The War on Huawei
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018.
