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President Trump To Use Huawei CFO As a Bargaining Chip (politico.com)
hackingbear shares a report from Politico, adding: "This fuels the suspicion that the Chinese executive is held as a hostage for the ongoing trade negotiation with China." From the report: President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he reserved the right to weigh in on the Justice Department's case against the CFO of Huawei, if it would help him close a trade deal with Beijing or would serve other American national security interests. "If I think it's good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made -- which is a very important thing -- what's good for national security -- I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary," Trump told Reuters. Trump added that President Xi Jinping of China had not called him about the case, but that the White House had been in touch with both the Justice Department and Chinese officials. Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada earlier this month at the request of American authorities, who allege that she violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. Yesterday, a Vancouver judge ruled that Meng would be released on a $7.5 million bail if she remains in British Columbia.
This is Tzar Trumpkin I : Hanlon's razor in full operation
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Trump and his useless communications style are his own worst enemies..
Exactly my thoughts expressed in another /. thread. How many Americans in China on business that will be detained will it take to free the woman should she be extradited to the US?
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Except they won't. They'd likely just incorporate overseas.
If he understood power politics he would have never made this announcement. He may have just thrown away any chance that Canada will actually agree to extradite her. This is incompetence politics.
Nah, this is straight out of the N-Korean playbook, take hostages and use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions. Kind of a new low for the US though.
She is not part to a political struggle — she is not even a US citizen. She may be part of a trade-war between countries, but that's not political at all.
How is a trade war not political?
He said nothing of the kind. The media's disease of putting words into Trump's mouth has, evidently, infected their best customers...
Damn fake news at it again! Putting words in Trump's mouth by printing them verbatim!!
He said, he might allow her to go, if China cooperates — the charges are perfectly real and not political.
The arrest didn't seem to be political, but now she's in custody Trump is talking about using the charges for political gain.
On the one hand that could mean "we got a deal, drop all charges!!"
But it could also mean "I don't care if the case is falling apart, I need the leverage! Keep her in custody!!"
Hence the reason why a Canadian Judge, even if they think the charges are legitimate, could refuse the extradition request on the grounds she won't be subjected to a fair legal process.
I stole this Sig
Which charges would those be? The charge of a Chinese citizen in China not complying with a unilateral declaration of "sanctions" by the USA which isn't even recognized by the UN? That's not a charge, it's a farce and a pretext. US law stops 12 miles offshore. Chinese citizens can do whatever they want under Chinese law while in China.
Your UID tells me you're probably senile, so I'll try to be gentle:
1. The UN doesn't need to recognize US law. As a general rule, the UN does not get involved with the laws of ANY country, though they will occasionally criticise ones which infringe on basic human rights.
2. You have no clue if her crime was commited while she was in China; you're just assuming it. This may be a revelation to you, but Chinese people do actually leave China once in a while. They even travel to the USA now and then.
3. Even if she had never left China, that doesn't mean she couldn't have broken a US law. Canada exports a lot of Canola to China. If I were to contaminate one of those shipments with ricin, I would very much be breaking Chinese law. If I were to then travel to (or through) a country which has an extradition treaty with China, the Chinese would be fully within their rights to demand that I be extradited on the charge of murder.
I can't wait for Saudis to start grabbing American tourists for extradition from Dubai for consuming alcohol, fornication and blasphemy while in the US.
The Saudis do not have laws against US citizens consuming alcohol while in the US. If they did then yes, they absolutely could do that; and the US would advize it's citizens not to travel to Saudi Arabia.