Meng Wanzhou’s (personal) deferred prosecution agreement with the US Justice Dept suggests that the (Trump-era) case against her was not as strong as it could be. To Beijing, of course, she is royalty. The kidnapping of the two Michaels, and their subsequent freeing upon Meng’s release, are a one-off event.
The ‘US caved’ critics say that Beijing has now ‘learned that taking hostages works’. But the world has learned more vividly than ever that China really will arrest innocent foreign citizens for extortion purposes. Will the threat of hostage-taking make Western countries more likely to defer to the CCP’s wishes in future? If anything, it simply increases the Chinese regime’s reputation as thuggish and lawless (and confirms Huawei’s untrustworthy, quasi-government status).
The sudden resolution of this affair involved a classic example of the CCP prioritizing its domestic audience over its international reputation. The state media contrived a rapturous homecoming for Meng as a moment of great national pride, while not even mentioning her plea deal or the simultaneous release of the two Michaels (later saying they have been given ‘medical parole’). The CCP pumps up patriotic hubris among its subjects like it inflated expectations of ever-rising apartment prices. In the long run, Beijing’s ‘victory’ is likely to prove a pyrrhic one.
Will Beijing really feel emboldened enough to pull a comparable retaliatory/blackmail stunt again? It would be a sign of delusion rather than strength. With perfect timing: a Foreign Policy piece explaining the real problem – China is a declining power.
Americans seem to have totally missed their opportunity to put her on TV to confess and apologize.
And do not forget: Sabrina and her Dad knew exactly what they were doing:
Remeber?
https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2176655/detained-huawei-cfo-sabrina-meng-wanzhou-told-staff-one-may-accept-risk
Does anyone know why Meng used a Hong Kong passport when leaving Canada to return to her glorious Motherland?
https://twitter.com/TheFallingStar/status/1441785952406409225
Re: the HK passport. I’m figuring Meng was using the HK passport when she entered Canada, and so was required to use the same passport on her way out.
Ester Toh sentenced the man who stabbed Dubious Ho to 9 years. Anyone remember what the guy who stabbed Long Hair got? I think it was around 1-2 years.
How come lo-gung and the four kids were not on the victory flight back? Are the mansions in VC up for sale?
@ A Poor Man
3 months and 6 days
@A Poor Man — Three MONTHS was what the guy who stabbed Long Hair got.
https://twitter.com/elson_tong/status/1442326505095192579
Vag’s shameless CCP ass burrowing is just beyond sickening. Does she really think she’ll EVER be considered as a CENO?? The lengths some shoe bottom gum remnants go to remain relevant is pathetic.
@Chris: Woulda been hilarious. Had she been in the U.S. though.
@ Pop Pan Cracker
I was under the impression, maybe mistakenly (?) that if a Mainland Chinese applied for and received a HKG passport they had to give up their Mainland passport?
The Foreign Policy piece’s definition of a “declining power is so elastic that it includes the late 19th Century USA, which makes it basically useless. They really mean “superpowers that find themselves up against a limit might start some shit”. Which is fine enough as a hypothesis about world conflict but says nothing about the ultimate trajectory of said superpowers.
Beijing absolutely will attempt to take hostages again. They will bully and bribe whoever they can. That’s how superpowers act. It will work less well then they would hope, but probably better than Western countries would like.
Evergrande. distract
from Evergrande. Anything
to distract from Evergrande.
Re: 9 years for stabbing a Dubious Ho.
Extra harsh considering Dubious most likely paid the poor chump to do it. Still old Dubious never was very good at holding up his end of the bargain of anything… hence the
triadsheroes he hired but failed to pay on 7.21 trashed his folks’ graves.