Imagine, if you will (and you should), a big American tech executive being detained over unspecified charges while on a trip to Beijing. That is exactly what a number of Silicon Valley executives told me they are concerned about after the arrest this week of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom company Huawei, in Canada at the behest of United States officials.
“It’s worrisome, because it’s an escalation we did not need,” one executive said, referring to the already tense trade talks between the two countries. “What China will do, given all the existing tensions, is anyone’s guess.”
