[joejerryronnie]

I would argue the Huawei CFO situation is just another escalation in the tit-for-tat battle that accompanies a rising power trying to displace an existing power. Most times, this leads to armed conflict of one sort or another.

[yourbandsucks]

I mean, in the long arc, sure, but I'd really like to not see it get there.

The Huawei thing just seems so avoidable. We renege on a deal with Iran that the Iranians were honoring, we start a trade war with China for mostly domestic-political reasons, and then we lump the 2 together into a justification for borderline-kidnapping of their citizen in Canada?

Whatever happened to getting together at the table and negotiating about this stuff?

[joejerryronnie]

Not that I disagree with your reasoning (and that going after Meng Wanzhou is a strange and seemingly unnecessary escalation), but China does not really negotiate honestly or play by any set of recognized international rules. I guess you could say the same of the US, but then you see the dilemma.

My, unfortunately cynical, takeaway is that no matter how “woke” we like to think we have become as a global society, everything still eventually boils down to might makes right.

[chillacy]

Germans called it https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik