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Comment by mark_l_watson | Hacker News Reader

I am not sure if the phrase "They can rally up support from their allies" is not quite accurate, more like arm twisting (like when we bullied our allies to not join One Belt One Road and even our staunchest allies like Israel and South Korea jumped on board with the OBOR).

However, I agree with you, the arrest of Meng did seem unreal.

I consider myself to be very patriotic and I want my country (USA) to do whatever it takes to be truly competitive: more money for education, tax credits for primary research, etc., etc. But I don't like the thing with Huawei because it seems like we are fighting an economic fight with bullying - and not what will help us long term which is building tech excellance.

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Not an American but I'm not convinced America is in the wrong here. It's reasonable to complain and act when someone is cherry-picking rules. US companies can't compete on price but can on research. When that is stolen, you fight back with whatever you have available to you. Complaints to WTO, economic force, arrests (where warranted).

I also understand the Chinese perspective. People and countries have stolen tech forever. The US has during development. Long game means steal it now and take a few knocks. People will forget soon enough but you'll have changed economic trajectory permanently.

The issue isn't really who is in the wrong, the issue is that China and America have different standards for determining what wrong means both formally and informally.

It is one thing to impose American standards on places like Pakistan with the Osama assassination, since they can't really fight back in a meaningful way. It is a big deal to assert something like that against China, who is effectively a military and economic equal of America. If Chinese leadership decides the business with Meng it is a political act, the ramifications could be quite far reaching.

I'll pile on and mention that right and wrong are poorly suited for geopolitical analysis in general, it's generally understood that relationships are shaped by power and strategic alliances over principles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(international_relatio...

Regardless of the countries in question, most of the time it feels like "if we do it, it is right. if you do, it isn't" is what is happening. In other words, "we are always right, you are right when it suits us and not when it doesn't"

How often do countries admit they were wrong? Especially powerful nations like the U.S or China?

This just sums up the behavior of both countries.

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