Opinion | The Huawei fail: why is China hitting back at Canada, instead of uniting the world against US hypocrisy?

China should have been able to use the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to its own advantage. Instead, its reaction has again shown an underlying arrogance and ethnocentricity, which is being noticed around Asia and in the West – and which offsets many of the benefits of its “belt and road” and other outward-looking initiatives in trade and diplomacy.

Does the United States have a real case for arresting Meng, when it could simply have taken action against Huawei on the grounds that it breached US sanctions against Iran? In previous cases involving sanctions-busting banks and other businesses, executives were spared but shareholders paid the price – huge fines. Likewise, fines were paid out but not a single banker went to jail for the improper lending that led to the 2008 financial crisis.

Although Americans doubtless have many legitimate complaints about Chinese (and others’) theft of intellectual property, American ownership claims can be so extreme as to invite reaction, and contempt. A typical example is Walt Disney trademarking Hakuna Matata, a song from The Lion King and also a common Swahili phrase meaning “no problem”. The filing, which has recently come to public attention ahead of a remake of the film, is causing outrage in east African countries where Swahili is a national language.

In the Huawei case, armed with damning evidence of US judicial hypocrisy, what does China do? It takes aim at a Canada that is only obeying its own laws in a transparent manner. The seizing of Canadians is simply an act of thuggery, not befitting a Confucian civilisation with thousands of years of history. China could have made friends with many countries that see the Huawei case as more driven by long-term US strategic interests than the law. It could have sought support from the many Asian and European allies of the US that resent the Iran sanctions: the way the US abuses the power of the dollar and its banking system to enforce petty spite at Iran and its trade.

China could have tapped the foreign indignation about Meng’s arrest. Instead, its reaction to the incident has reminded foreigners of episodes earlier in the year, when the Chinese government and internet were up in arms over the arrest of a Chinese reporter for an assault on a student in Britain that was caught on camera, and over Chinese tourists’ complaint about ill-treatment by the Swedish police.