When Canadian officials arrested Meng (Cindy) Wanzhou in Vancouver in December 2018, Trump didn’t say much about the arrest even though the United States requested her arrest. Wanzhou is the daughter of Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei. The U.S. claims Huawei CFO Cindy Wanzhou broke U.S. sanction rules when Huawei sold products to a company that does business with Iran. The U.S. also claims Huawei steals intellectual property from the U.S. technology companies.
Huawei and the Chinese government demanded the release of Wanzhou, but Canada may send her to the United States for prosecution in May unless Trump gets what he wants from China. Trump told the press he might make a deal to release Meng if China gives him something in return during the trade talks. Several news reports say Trump wants to dangle Meng’s release in front of the Chinese in order to secure the deal he wants from China. But that strategy won’t work, according to Chinese trade officials.
According to the New York Times, Meng’s arrest isn’t just about the phony U.S. charges. The United States wants to slow down China’s 5G network development. Trump banned Huawei’s 5G technology, but countries around the world want Huawei’s technology. Huawei won more than 18 new 5G network contracts over the last five months despite Trump’s attempt to control 5G networks around the world.
Europe is on board with Huawei 5G technology. Half of those 18 new 5G contracts came from Europe. That brings Huawei total commercial contracts to 40. That puts China in first place in the race to claim 5G superiority. Not one of those 40 contracts came from mainland China. But Huawei does have a 5G contract with Hong Kong.
China Mobile, China’s top phone carrier, gave Nokia, the Finnish telecom company, a $1.17 billion 5G contract last year. Ericsson, the other top telecom equipment producer, won 18 5G commercial contracts in the United States and in Australia. Yahoo Finance claims the only reason Ericsson won the contracts is Huawei can’t sell its 5G networks in the U.S. or Australia. Trump’s and Australia’s want to stop Huawei from achieving global 5G dominance.
Europe currently does business with Huawei and that relationship is successful. If Europe turns its back on Huawei they would fall behind in the 5G market for at least two years, according to European news reports. But the U.S. still wants to stop Huawei from taking the lion’s share of the 5G market. But thanks to Huawei’s relationship with other countries, Trump’s plan to stop China’s 5G dominance may be too little too late.
