The Biden administration’s decision last week to suspend the criminal case against Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou signals dangerous weakness in our China policy. Whether this was the result of an explicit political deal between Washington and Beijing or just a straightforward Justice Department prosecutorial judgment, the immediate perception of a highly questionable concession will not fade quickly. Ironically, if President Joe Biden compromised a legitimate criminal prosecution in a dubious political trade-off, he walked in Donald Trump’s shoes on Huawei, with identical negative consequences.

At the Justice Department’s request, Canada arrested Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer and its founder’s daughter, in December 2018. U.S. prosecutors sought her extradition to face trial on financial fraud charges, specifically Meng’s concealment of Huawei activities in Iran, contrary to U.S. sanctions. Meng denied the charges and fought extradition while confined to residences she owned in Vancouver. She had already lost one key argument when the Canadian court agreed with prosecutors that her fraudulent activity constituted “double criminality,” both in America and Canada, making extradition likely.