Biden's Department of Commerce nominee commuted charges for Huawei executive

Concerns have been raised over President Joe Biden's nomination of Thea Kendler to the Department of Commerce, with some alleging that it may be a sort of sweetheart deal with communist China due to Kendler’s past willingness to appease China when prosecuting Huawei’s top executives.

Biden’s nominee for the Department of Commerce let Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou off with a slap on the wrist over fraud charges. Kendler was a prosecutor on the case.

As outlined in an earlier press release by the DOJ, Meng made misleading statements about Huawei’s business status in Iran, in order to preserve their working relationship with a financial institution.

But, as Fox News described, the way that Meng’s agreement with prosecutors is structured indicates a "if you acknowledge you did a bad thing, legal issues will go away" type of message.

In addition, as the Center for Strategic & International Studies points out, the Biden administration (alongside Canada) and China engaged in a trade of hostages. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who had been held in Chinese custody, were allowed to go home in exchange for Meng.

It reduces the rule of law to a symbolic gesture. A candidate willing to play into the Biden administration’s habit of perception management is likely why he nominated Thea Kendler in the first place.

Under the table styles of dealings with China is what Kendler would do in her position.

In recent days, a Chinese ambassador threatened Canada against banning Huawei’s 5G in a way that solidifies concerns over the validity of the Biden nominee. Cong Peiwu said the "Meng Wanzhou incident" should’ve been an apparent "lesson" to the country.

Canadians overall have indicated their desire for Trudeau to distance from Huawei altogether, amid concerns their technologies will be abused by Chinese spies. The FCC in the United States banned Huawei last year and the Biden administration has made moves attempting to further separate the company from American infrastructure.

The Biden administration currently faces a backdrop of deteriorating Chinese relations on one hand, but questionable nominees on the other. Saule Omarova’s previous policy statements had her detractors painting her as Communist given Biden’s nod to her for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency role.

Saule Omarova withdrew herself from consideration earlier this week.