Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought tensions between the United States and China to a boiling point. But before the global health crisis, relations between Washington and Beijing were already heated on the tech front. The Trump administration’s latest moves in its campaign to stymie Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei have only stoked this “tech war.”
Last month, the Commerce Department imposed new restrictions on Huawei that prevent the firm and its suppliers from using American technology and software. In response, Huawei’s rotating chairman, Guo Ping, said at its annual analyst conference that “survival is the key word” for the company now. Then, in late May, a Canadian court ruled that fraud charges in the U.S. against Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, would also constitute a crime in Canada. The ruling was a crucial legal requirement to advance the case for Meng’s extradition to the U.S., where she is accused of violating American sanctions against Iran.