As far as I’m concerned, the only winner in Meng Wanzhou history is the US government; the other two (Canada and China), losers.
Small reminder: as part of the last trade treaty between Canada, the United States and Mexico (CUSMA), which followed on from theALENA, the Americans wanted to give themselves control over the agreements that their two partners could conclude with foreign countries. At the time, Canada had initiated preliminary exchanges with China in order to consider negotiating a possible free trade agreement between them. Everything was still very embryonic and did not suit the Americans. At the same time, there was talk of 5G, a technology where Huawei was dominant, with no American company appearing as a valid option. For the Americans, it was unthinkable that Canada, by negotiating a free trade treaty with China, freed itself even minimally from the economic tutelage they exercise over Canada, and moreover integrated a technology future (5G) that is not the product of an American company. For them, it was to introduce the wolf into the fold.
Thereupon, the American authorities have logically obeyed their national interest, which is their strictest right. The Meng Wanzhou affair was the trigger for the American response. The instigator is believed to have been John Bolton, US national security adviser to Donald Trump (March 2018-September 2019), a little rat that even Donald Trump had to fire afterwards for his inflammatory comments. Trump said of him that if he had listened to him, the United States would have started two or three world wars. Jean-François Lépine reminded RDI on September 25 (citing a report from Globe & Mail that I have not read) that the US government had several times previously attempted to extradite the lady in question while she was in various countries (she traveled a lot). All the countries asked to play the game would have refused to join in there, except, of course, Canada. Clearly, Bolton went fishing with Canada… and it worked. That says a lot about the incompetence of the Canadian government on this file. In short, at the end of all this, Canada’s relations with China are chilled for a long time and Huawei, probably out of the picture. Make way for a possible American company for the deployment of 5G in Canada.
On this, the United States is consistent with itself: it is the business first of all. Let us remember the VHS debate against Betamax, in the 1970s, when the United States had succeeded in imposing the VHS standard to the detriment of its Japanese competitor, however recognized as technically superior; record arms sales to the very democratic Saudi Arabia; surprise tariffs imposed at any time in Canada for our lumber or aluminum, despite the agreements already negotiated; the recent affair of the French submarines … […] For the Americans, if the case has recently been finalized, it is because the lemon had been squeezed to the maximum, the United States no longer having any direct advantage in letting the matter drag on – especially since their case did not have legal weight.
Today, the Chinese are grateful to them. They have recovered the one they themselves considered a hostage in the great US-China litigation, and many in Canada will salute their unwavering support for the release of the “two Michael”.
Reading the comments of the chroniclers and “specialists” of China in Canada, all more “angry” than the others against China, we have to admit that the American strategy has worked in full. For the United States, all’s well that ends well.
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