The U.S. commitment to the rule of law is necessarily hypocritical. The United States wants on the one hand to exploit legal rules to restrain others for its own selfish ends, and on the other to be as little restrained by those rules as possible. Yet if you are to be a successful hypocrite, you need to at least pretend to respect the norms that you say are important. Thus, for example, if you arrange for the arrest of a powerful foreign executive, you should justify the arrest in terms of general legal principles rather than negotiating tactics. As Martha Finnemore and I have argued, Trump is not notably skilled at deploying hypocrisy, instead preferring blunt power politics. This damages the United States’ ability to persuade others to accede to its understanding of the rule of law, since the United States itself does not even bother to pretend to be committed to it....

After Meng’s arrest, China threatened retaliation against Canada. It is probably no coincidence that former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was apparently arrested by Chinese authorities. He is likely being held as a bargaining token to put pressure on the Canadian government and Canadian courts.

This is not a new tactic for China. For example, there is a long history of business executives disappearing from Hong Kong, only to mysteriously turn up on the mainland, tearfully repenting on television for their purported crimes. However, it becomes much more difficult for nations such as the United States to push back against these tactics when the Trump administration too appears to be using hostage politics to achieve its political ends. Again, a combination of hypocrisy and (often sporadic) commitment to broad ideals has served the United States well in the past, but will be far more difficult to resort to in future.