Drew Thompson

Opinion | The case of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou: what happens when both the US and China play the victim

Drew Thompson says the US has its own narrative of victimisation to counter the Chinese one: it sees itself as the victim of intellectual property theft. The arrest of Meng Wanzhou is just the biggest case, so far, in the Justice Department’s campaign

Reading Time:4 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Illustration: Timothy Mcevenue. See: www.timothymcevenue.net

Drew Thompson

Published: 1:00am, 20 Dec 2018Updated: 4:11am, 20 Dec 2018

The arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou is the highest-profile salvo in an increasingly tense economic and technological competition between the United States and China. At the heart of this competition are two duelling national narratives of victimisation that justify each country’s approach to bilateral competition, including in the realm of intellectual property and technology. Importantly, these opposing narratives entrench each side’s position and reduce the potential for a simple or satisfactory resolution.

China’s narrative of victimisation at the hands of Western powers is central to Xi Jinping’s Chinese dream, but hardly a new story. China has long seen itself as the aggrieved underdog seeking to catch up with the West, which justifies gathering knowledge, intellectual property and technology – and achieving the objective of national rejuvenation – by any means necessary.

Visitors to China in the 1980s and early 1990s will recall how the upper floors of Xinhua bookstores were off-limits to foreigners: tables and shelves were laden with photocopied texts of Western classics and unlicensed reproductions of technical books because the authorities believed China needed the knowledge but could not afford to pay royalties to wealthy Western intellectual property owners. Decades ago, the stakes were lower; intellectual property theft was an irritant to the bilateral relationship but it was tolerated because there were larger issues.

However, that culture of intellectual property and technology acquisition continues unabated to this day, and has become a major cause of friction between the two countries. The Trump administration, like its predecessors, has detailed its grievances against China, including high duties and technology thefts that have cost the United States billions of dollars, caused economic damage and hurt competitiveness.

A worker prepares to destroy pirated CDs and DVDs in a campaign against piracy in Taiyuan, Shanxi province in 2010. Photo: Reuters

The scope and scale of the illicit acquisition of technology has expanded along with China’s economy, with perpetrators using both hi-tech and low-tech means to acquire increasingly high-value technologies.