Bill Barr jumped into the president’s quest to bring down Chinese tech giant Huawei when he told a group of security officials the U.S. should buy enough Nokia or Ericsson stock to control those companies. Mr. Barr wants to stop Huawei’s global 5G expansion program so the president will have ammunition when the Chinese come back to the trade table to talk about tech challenges, according to the New York Times.
The DOJ’s latest attempt to stop Huawei’s 5G expansion includes a New York indictment that claims the Chinese company steals trade secrets from U.S. companies like T-Mobile. DOJ attorneys included Meng Wanzhou name in the court document. Meng is under house arrest in Canada for violating sanctions against Iran. Wanzhou is Huawei’s CFO. Meng will replace her father, Ren Zhengfei, as CEO when he retires.
The new charges include a federal racketeering charge. That charge claims Huawei conspired to mishandle intellectual property from six U.S. tech companies. The DOJ claims playing dirty was part of Huawei’s strategy to become the world’s number one telecom equipment maker. Huawei is number two behind Samsung. President Xi wants Huawei to be the number one smartphone producer and vendor by 2024.
President Xi finally surfaced wearing a white mask during a televised temperature taking exercise. Mr. Xi went underground after reports surface he didn’t do enough to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The coronavirus got a new name from the World Health Organization when researchers discovered the virus belongs to the SARS species of viruses. The WHO calls the virus COVID-19. There’s no vaccine to stop the spread of the virus. More than 50,000 cases stopped GDP growth in China. And more than 1,500 deaths make the virus more dangerous than the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Chinese economists think China’s economic growth could drop by 3.0 percent in the first quarter. The new 2020 economic growth projection is 5.7%. That’s down from the 6.0% growth in 2019.
Bill Barr made a rare appearance after the president gave him a Twitter high-five. Mr. Barr made four DOJ prosecutors look like villains for requesting Roger Stone spend seven years behind bars for threatening a witness, obstructing justice in the Mueller investigation, and lying to Congress. Mr. Barr told ABC News the president’s tweets hinder him from performing his duties as attorney general. Chuck Schumer told the press Barr thinks his only duty is to protect the president, so he should resign or face impeachment.
