Bad day for Huawei; Liu He in DC

It is a gray day here at wintry Sinocism HQ. Among the things on my radar today:

• Liu He arrived in DC Monday, just hours after the US announced two sets of indictments against Huawei, the former CFO Meng Wanzhou and at least two other defendants whose identities were redacted. One of the the indictments says Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei lied to FBI agents, so there is speculation he could be one of the other two;

• The deadline for the US to submit a formal extradition request to Canada for Meng Wanzhou is the end of today and the US confirmed it will make the submission;

• The US-China trade talks formally start Wednesday. The timing of the indictments may have been set to send a hawkish message on the eve of the talks, it may have just fit the Canadian judiciary schedule, or it may be a bit of both;

• There are accusations the charges against Huawei are politicized, and maybe they are, though from reading the indictments it sure looks like they were caught red-handed. If the US indictments of …