Professor Anne-Marie Brady, Huawei CFO arrested and about that whole $100k for two National MPs thing

By
Martyn Bradbury
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45
25

The cold war in the Pacific between America & China has suddenly got a whole lot warmer with escalating trade tensions, sea lane passage threats, 5 Eye member nations banning Chinese telecommunication expansions and our own Academics getting threatened for speaking out against China…

Global China watchers call for protection for professor Anne-Marie Brady over harassment

A series of unusual burglaries, reports of spies looking for listening devices and claims of car tampering have prompted alarmed experts around the world to call on New Zealand’s government to protect a vocal China critic.

University of Canterbury professor Anne-Marie Brady says she has been victim of attempts to silence her since the publication of her major report criticising China’s alleged influence in New Zealand last year.

In February, she told an Australian parliamentary committee her office and home had been burgled, noting laptops had been taken but other valuables left untouched.

New Zealand police in September confirmed there was an ongoing, unusually long and well-resourced probe into the break-ins, with Interpol called in, and the NZ Herald reported spies had been called to search Prof Brady’s office.

…so adding to this already tinder dry geopolitical environment is news that Canada have arrested the CFO of Huwai…

Auckland academic sees serious fallout as Huawei CFO arrested at US request

Canadian authorities said Wednesday that they have arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies at the request of the United States.

Meng Wanzhou is also deputy chairman of Huawei’s board and the daughter of the company’s founder, People’s Liberation Army officer turned entrepreneur Ren Zhengfei.

Canadian Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod said Meng Wanzhou was detained in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday. He said Meng is sought for extradition by the US.

McLeod said a publication ban had been imposed in the case and he could not provide any further details. The ban was sought by Meng, who has a bail hearing Friday, he said.

…this is an extraordinary ratcheting up of tensions by America and it follows NZ declining Huawai their 5G contract with Spark.

But while we are here, shouldn’t we go back again to that whole JLR recording where a wealthy Chinese Businessman was caught openly trying to buy two National Party MPs for the Party list?

There needs to be an acknowledgment that National are little more than a political front for Chinese business interests with many high ranking National Party MPs having private financial relationships with wealthy Chinese businessmen.

At some stage NZ is going to be forced to pick sides between America and China and the side we should pick is our own.

We don’t want to answer to Beijing OR Washington.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Economically we have all our cows in one Chinese paddock and politically we are owned by America’s 5 Eyes. The most volatile elements of both sides of this America/China cold war could tear deepest here in NZ.

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45 COMMENTS

  1. Why governments are supposed to keep out of private business.

    This all started by retroactively okaying mass surveillance. No turning back now. John Key should have his knighthood striped.

    • johnkey should never have got a knighthood in the first place and neither should many others if people want to be like mother england they can fuck of there we are not class society.

  2. On the BBC coming home from northland , they said that Meng was accused of direction a company that had violated US trade sanctions against Iran.
    How the hell does the US get the authority to require Canada to arrest a Chinese businesswoman for doing business with Iran. Does America make the laws for the world now? I don’t doubt that they aspire to, but WTF is any other country doing obeying them. The world’s gone mad.
    D J S

    • 3 months ago there was no trade sanctions. European nationals are still trading with Irain. Trump has had to give American companies exemptions. Mong wouldn’t have that access. This is a stitch up. Canadian officials have over stepped themselves.

      • False- the US sanctions programmes have been in place for a number of years- 10+ years. The activity that has lead to Zhou being arrested reportedly relates to her time at Huawei subsidiary Skycom.

        The US have jurisdiction and can detain a foreign national is due to their being A US nexus to the alleged breaches- either US origin components of USD involved in transactions- quite simple really.

        • America gets to decide who you sell to.

          Even though you’re not American. Or not even in America (Canada, rookie mistake sunshine)

          Fuck.

          This is completely indefensible, and fuck anyone trying to defend this boko haram bullshit.

    • How much of this is actually an attempt to head off Chinese economic superiority.To nobble Chinese trade competitors
      American corporations use the power of the US govt as mafia like enforcers .
      They then bribe/lobby/give campaign donations to political players to keep the racket going.
      Sanctions and their enforcement circumvents the WTO rules.
      And we’re told that we’re pals with the US and its lackeys because of our shared values and “the rule of law”??

    • That’s a damned good question David that has been on my mind as well. What would happen if China arrested a senior executive of, say, Apple Corporation?

      What authority does the US have to arrest other nationals from other countries for an economic blockade that has no UN mandate?

      It appears that the US has become the World’s policeman. Cue Team America?

      Precisely what Trump said the US should not be.

  3. Article about the daughter of the founder of Huawei in today’s news features this paragraph:

    [I][B]Huawei NZ deputy managing director Andrew Bowater says $400m NZ investment is “up in the air”.

    Bowater said a proposed $400 million investment in New Zealand that Huawei announced after Ren met with former prime minister Bill English in Wellington in March 2017 was “up in the air”.

    The plans included building a cloud computing centre, and sourcing more products and services locally.

    “Until we have some clarity around the future we can’t make any bold investment decisions,” he said. “Everything is up in the air until we get some clarity.”[/I][/B]

    More evidence of dodgy dealings with the National Party.
    Just tell me why exactly the CEO of a large multinational telecommunications company which is known for its security risks was having a private meeting with the then (acting) PM of this country?

    Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/109139920/huaweis-chief-financial-officer-arrested-in-canada

    • “A large multinational telecommunications company which is known for its security risks”. And we know this because? Oh that’s right, america and prof. Brady tell us so. I am sure that they are “absolutely certain”. and that these things are all “highly likely”. WTF ever happened to reasoning beings asking for at least a small level of PROOf, as apposed to parroting american propaganda?

      • Well well, looky here… ‘Japan plans to ban government purchases of equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp to beef up its defenses against intelligence leaks and cyber attacks’.
        Do you really think countries as technologically advanced as this would be taking these kind of measures if there wasn’t an issue?
        Do you honestly think Japan would be doing this simply based on propaganda?
        Are you trying to say that our GCSB is making recommendations which could have serious financial and political ramifications based on hearsay?
        You might want to revisit the concept of reasoning beings.

  4. If “we” don’t pick the US, “we” will fall to the lebensraum-seeking Hanazi dictatorshit…

    I foresee a civil war… pick a side 😉

      • typo…or don’t you know English?….it is actually “piss off” with two fs

        ….also telling someone to “piss off” is a bullying tactic of someone who does not know how to debate or the value of democracy

        …in other words it is an authoritarian order not a democratic dialogue or dialectical argument

  5. The Huawei Executive was arrested because of her Company allegedly not complying with U.S. sanctions on Iran. These sanctions are in breach of International law. But in today’s world, might makes right.We have to look back to Nazi Germany in 1939 to see a country so blatantly threatening the world order.So what does this mean for NZ citizens? It means that any of us can be arrested at any time for not complying with U.S.law. We can be extradited for making critical or treasonous statements about the U.S. Empire.I have compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany and come to the conclusion that in all respects the U.S. has degenerated to become a fully fledged Fourth Reich! Will I get the same protection that Australia affords its Australian citizen Julian Assange in his threatened extradition to the U.S by the U.K. government? Will Jacinda Blair alter her grovelling behaviour to the U.S. Empire and protect NZ citizens? As a member of the five eyes we are an intrinsic part of the U.S. empire which is responsible for invasions of 7 countries illegally in the last 20 years .We are complicit in the murder of 80,000 Yemenese children! We wallow in the blood of a mountain of corpses produced by the evil Empire. How did it come to this? How did we abandon all decency and our moral compass!!!

    • Hit the nail right on the head, Historian Pete! Excellent comment.

      We are of course complicit in the deaths of half a million Iraqi children.

      • And Jacinda Blairs government voted in the United Nations General Assembly to condemn Hamas! Has this wretched Blairite acolyte said one word about the vile behavior of Zionist Israel towards the Palestinians?

        • @ HISTORIAN PETE dig around in Operation Talpiot. Israel owns the keys to the front door of GCHQ and all the other front doors to boot. NZ just an obedient servant.

    • Not often I agree with you Pete but on this occassion you’ve sussed it very well.

      The US sanctions against Iran have no international legal standing. As such the US is on shake ground tryibg to enforce them. The “arrest” of Meng Wanzhou should be seen for what it is, a kidnapping and illegal detention of a foreign national. War could be provoked by such actions.

      As much as I have no truck with Putin and his oligarchy, Russia could counter US agression in this situation. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov “a just world order – if you want you can call it a post-West world order”. It can’t be any worse than the US acting unilaterally and illegally to suit its own interests.

  6. Is anyone in parliament going to remove foreign nationals ability to vote here as residents? If not why the hell not?
    Sleepy hobbits or terminally thick?

    • no taxation without representation keepcalmcarryon. If we expect foreign nationals to live, work and become permanent residents then they should be able to vote!

      • It’s a fine sentiment, unfortunately it means a high likelihood of continued coordinated Chinese voting in their national interest not ours.
        It needs shut down pronto, other countries put their own interest first why are we such fops.

  7. If foreign nationals are permitted to vote here we need to reinstate our prisoners rights to vote they are born and bred here.

  8. On the bright side, Trump’s US is systematically destroying the neoliberal global order. Nationalism is being shown to be essential. Dependence on free flowing international trade and investment is being shown up for it’s hazards for both nations and multinational companies. Maybe in the end it will be an improvement to the fortunes of the masses if it doesn’t end in war.

  9. I hope there is someone with a Machiavellian streak in the current government because it will take some serious sneaky cunning to work away between these two lumbering beasts.

  10. With regard to the Anne Marie Brady case it is obvious she is an attention seeking hog.

    She openly works for American neo-conservative think tanks (Wilson Centre) and for the Taiwanese government. Yet she has the gall to whinge about foreign interference from the Chinese?

    We need to think who else could possibly benefit by what has happened to her:

    Is it China? Obviously not. If it was them they have obviously not managed to shut Brady up. Brady has got huge international prominence out of this supposed ‘intimidation’ campaign. The break ins etc have drawn far more attention to Brady’s work than would otherwise have been the case. They have resulted in huge focus and media attention on purported Chinese influence tactics in New Zealand.

    However if it was done by someone setting out to demonise the Chinese, draw attention to Brady’s work, and focus attention on China’s role in the region, then this is exactly what has happened. Who benefits from this? The Americans. And of course Brady herself – an obvious attention hog.

    So I would submit that it is much more likely that these tactics were carried out by American rather than Chinese interests. Or perhaps even Brady herself

    And as for Brady’s fears for her personal safety….yeah right.

    She has just returned from a one month trip to China where by her own admission she said was was ‘completely fine’

    Think about it.

    • It pisses me off that without any evidence of Chinese wrongdoing, otherwise sensible characters have rushed to conclusions and fired off a group letter to the govt clamouring for academic freedom and protection
      IF it aint China , its Russia, and they swallow it hook line and sinker.
      All putting pressure on Jacinda and Winston to publicly demonstrate their allegiance to the US

  11. Well, you know those Iranians. They like their debauched parties with Spark executives, stuffing NZ lamb in their slavering jowls and plugging huawei phones into garage built cruise missiles. And that little miss executive? was trained by Shaolin monks and Gurkhas from Nepal and she was Jade from Mortal Kombat. True story. There could still be a fatality, you gotta watch the chopsticks in her bun. They’re a weapon

  12. yeah we are pretty much economically dependent on China. As an orchardist, China and Asia is one of the biggest markets for NZ apples, now and into the future. China has not invaded, destroyed, gone to war with and has many military bases in the rest of the world. So I feel less concerned about the Chinese presence than the US omnipresence here.
    And why do you keep going on about;

    “National are little more than a political front for Chinese business interests with many high ranking National Party MPs having private financial relationships with wealthy Chinese businessmen.”

    Surely it’s about the National party allowing these alleged going ons to carry on. Not about whether the business men are Chinese or not.

    So it’s ok for the US or England to buy political clout here? Oh that’s right they don’t even have to buy it. Just a threat in the right direction is all that is needed.

    AND by the way, from the blog Moonofalabama; https://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/12/neocons-sabotage-trumps-trade-talks-huawei-cfo-taken-hostage-to-blackmail-china.html#more;

    “Huawei’s share in 5G patents has since risen further. Right now it is the only true 5G supplier that can build a complete network.”

    So good one NZ for stopping Huawei’s input into our 5G network. I’ve heard the 5G network is bad for you anyhow.
    So please stop shilling for the CIA.

  13. Who is the real danger to world peace? New Zealand should take sides. We can’t sit on the sidelines. We should side with the emerging powers against imperialism:

    Washington’s “revolting” policy of stretching its own criminal laws to other countries’ territories has to end, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said as Huawei’s top executive faces extradition to the US.

    Lavrov slammed America’s habit of applying its laws “extraterritorially” and dubbed it “revolting to the vast majority of normal states and normal people.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/445864-lavrov-us-huawei-arrest/

  14. Daddy controls Childlike Canada – and toddler New Zealand

    The crumbling nucleic, idiotic united states says to Canada “JUMP” and Canada immediately nabs chief Finance Officer of HUAWEI, Meng Wanzhou.

    She has been thrown into custody in Vancouver without Charge at the request of a failing America.

    England is highly reliant on the excellent advanced Technology designed and installed by HUAWEI.

    New Zealand also jumps dizzingly quickly into the creepy arms of Trumpism and also demands the outrageous capture of Meng Wanzhou.

    Even though we are very reliant on our trade and livelihood with Chinese people.

    What the hell is going on Winston ? Are you just a a Canadian snow Flake. ? Or do you like throwing China Business women without charge, into American murder holes.

    China is not perfect. But it is a damn sight better than America will ever be – or ever has been. China has never killed millions and millions of human beings.

      • Yeah, that book the article references is written by a total charlatan called Frank Dikotter, an open apologist for British imperialism.

        Mao? He saved more lives than perhaps any other political figure in human history:

        “China’s growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history”

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/

        Suck it up. And you can see from the chart that even during the Great Leap Forward, infant mortality was still lower than it was in 1950, just a year after the communist victory. The Great Leap Forward was a relative setback, but your small mind probably finds it difficult to grasp that basic concept.

        Here is just one relatively minor atrocity carried out by the British in China, the Wanhsien Incident: British gunboats shelled innocent Chinese civilians killing about 3000 in 1926. The British Consul thus described this incident: “Its a wonderful show on the part of the navy, but we can never forgive these bloody Chinks…’ Also the Shanghai English language press hailed the killing of innocent Chinese claiming they had been “put in their place.”

        Of course under the principle of extraterritoriality the British and other Westerners could kill Chinese with impunity in China — shoot them down like dogs, with absolute legal impunity right up until 1943.

        Winston Churchill had particular racist contempt for the Chinese urging at one point in the 1920 the “systematic bombing of the Chinese army as well as the use of poison gas.”

        In fact it could be argued that British imperialism was far worse than Japanese imperialism – the British created about 50 million opium addicts, in order to reverse an unfavourable balance of trade.

        So you should read up on a bit of real history before shooting off at the mouth.

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