A Stopped Clock

While it is incredibly rare, I actually find myself in agreement with Trump and his administration that China has crossed the line with its treatment of Hong Kong and that all special privileges that Hong Kong enjoyed should be terminated.  It looks like Canada and other western countries will largely follow on this specific policy, though Canada is still trying (vainly I am sure) to deal with the Canadians that China is holding hostage.  It's probably time to admit that our relationship with China is tatted beyond repair (due to the Meng Wanzhou affair).  While it will be extremely difficult to unpack the ways in which Chinese goods are traded in North America, it probably is in fact going to have to happen at some point, as Trump has managed to reignite the Cold War but with a much more powerful adversary in China and is essentially dragging Canada along.  (Indeed, Meng Wanzhou wouldn't be facing extradition to the US if Trump wasn't trying to make a point -- incredibly he even dragged his idiotic attempts to derail the nuclear deal with Iran into this dispute.)  As I said, it is pretty galling to agree with Trump on anything, but this time he is making sense.  Now the problem is that this will ultimate hurt Hong Kongers far more than China itself, but there are no great options and there has been too much appeasement of China in general.  I certainly expect over the next few years there will be a major exodus of people from Hong Kong, either to Taiwan, the UK (now that Boris Johnson is supposedly opening the floodgates!), Canada or potentially to the US, depending on what happens to immigration reform (probably after Trump is finally dragged out of office).

I'm less convinced he is taking exactly the right line against Huawei, as that is driven mostly by economic considerations in trying to advance US firms rather than purely security concerns.  That said, the idea that Huawei wouldn't assist the Chinese government to spy on users of its system seems hopelessly naive these days, when the Chinese government is clearly intent on extending its reach and influence in basically every direction.  So I am not shedding any tears over Huawei getting its wings clipped.