Opinion | The arrest of Huawei CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou matters, or not; agreements have been made, or not: welcome to the US-China trade mess
- Robert Boxwell says Beijing and Washington can’t even agree on who started the trade war. Nor it is clear how the US will verify China’s compliance on the issue of intellectual property theft, which the Washington sees as a security threat
Who knew trade could be so exciting? Aside from trying to outrun Somali pirates in speedboats chasing your freighter with AK-47s in hand or wondering whether your produce truck is going to make it across the Mexico-US border with your cocaine shipment intact, trade is generally humdrum stuff. Offices, emails, orders, containers, ships, jets, trucks, payments. And millions of people who generally get along.
You can buy a pint of Ben & Jerry’s at your local Kuala Lumpur hypermarket (if you don’t mind paying double the US price) and your friends in the US can buy plenty of this and that made in Mexico, China or wherever at their local hypermarket. You can even have your Chinese-made fentanyl conveniently delivered to your doorstep by the US Postal Service. Who would have known?
Elites and intellectuals disagreeing fiercely on the best course for their country, all while pelting their presidents with vitriol or carefully chosen criticism – for not being tough enough, or too tough, with the other guy. US President Donald Trump is used to this. Chinese President Xi Jinping isn’t.
There’s even disagreement about who started it, which is not surprising for a “war”. Trump did, according to Beijing and the Trump-hating majority of the world press. Beijing did decades ago, according to Washington and the rest of the world press.
