![]() The fact that the warrant had been issued by a grand jury in the US for bank fraud, and reviewed independently by a Canadian judge, carried little weight with Beijing, which sees US law as little more than a political weapon. The arrest, after all, came in the middle of a high-stakes geopolitical fight involving Huawei, with the US, Australia and New Zealand pushing the global Chinese company out of next-generation mobile networks, for fear Beijing would use them for spying. That the Chinese might be looking at multiple avenues for hitting back after the Huawei detention is hardly surprising. As one Chinese journalist told me, the Global Times “is sort of like Fox News under a Republican administration”. “In this complicated game,” said the Global Times, “China should focus on the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, especially Australia, New Zealand and Canada, who actively follow the US against China.” The Global Times doesn’t speak for Beijing, but it has an outsized voice in China nonetheless, courtesy of its owner, the People’s Daily, itself the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party. Amid this furore, one prominent Chinese media outlet suggested another target to turn the screws on Ottawa. And Beijing made clear more was to come, threatening “grave consequences” unless the Huawei executive was released. Top-level meetings for Canadian diplomats dried up. A couple of Canadians who, until then, had been working openly in China, were detained. ![]() After Canadian authorities seized a top Chinese executive from the telecommunications giant Huawei at Vancouver Airport last month on a US arrest warrant, Beijing immediately set about retaliating.
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