China State Media Calls Huawei Arrest a ‘Despicable Rogue’ Act

(Bloomberg) -- China's state media called the arrest of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co.'s chief financial officer in Canada a “despicable rogue's approach," painting the move as a politically motivated effort to contain China's rise.

“Obviously Washington is resorting to a despicable rogue's approach as it cannot stop Huawei's 5G advance in the market," the nationalist Global Times said Thursday in an editorial.

“Despite incomplete information about the incident, the U.S. move obviously goes against the consensus reached between the heads of state of China and the U.S. in Argentina."

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of the Chinese telecommunications giant, was arrested in Canada at the request of the U.S., on the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping negotiated a truce in the ongoing trade war between the two countries over dinner at a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.

The U.S. alleges that Huawei, a major player in the coming global roll-out of 5G wireless networking equipment, violated U.S. sanctions against Iran.

“The Chinese government should seriously mull over the U.S. tendency to abuse legal procedures to suppress China's high-tech enterprises," the Global Times editorial said. “It should increase interaction with the U.S. and exert pressure when necessary."

A separate editorial published Thursday in the state-run China Daily hit on the same theme.

“One thing that is undoubtedly true and proven is the U.S. is trying to do whatever it can to contain Huawei's expansion in the world simply because the company is the point man for China's competitive technology companies," the China Daily editorial said.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Matthew Boesler in Beijing at mboesler1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Jeffrey Black, Sharon Chen

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Editorial Board