Jeffrey Wright is US analyst, Paul Triolo is geotechnology practice head, and Michael Hirson is China and Northeast Asia practice head at Eurasia Group. The opinions expressed in this commentary are their own.

As President Trump negotiated a trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires last weekend, an arrest 7,000 miles away created another complication between the world's largest economies. Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei and the daughter of its founder, was arrested in Vancouver on December 1 on suspicion of violating US sanctions on Iran.

Meng's arrest won't keep the US and China from beginning negotiations, likely next week in Washington. Both sides have much to gain from reopening talks. Trump is under pressure from jittery equity markets and Chinese tariffs on US agricultural products, and Xi is eager to get relief from US tariffs that contribute to a slowing Chinese economy.

But the arrest highlights the fact that fundamental conflicts between the US and China are getting worse, not better, even as the sides try for a détente on trade. Beijing and Washington face technological and geopolitical fissures that may defy efforts to keep them separate from the trade talks.

Meng's arrest is just the most provocative step in the US government's long-running effort to push back against Huawei, which US intelligence sees as a security threat . US policymakers have long pressured American carriers not to use Huawei equipment in their networks, and have taken that campaign global, encouraging allies in Europe and Asia to limit Huawei's presence in existing and shut the company out of their developing 5G networks.

The US' efforts to limit Huawei's global business are just part of the broader conflict over tech between the two countries. Both want to control the next-generation technologies — including 5G, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and others — that will drive economic growth and national security in coming decades. The US has already imposed new export controls and investment rules that will make it harder for China to acquire US technology, an effort that will continue regardless of the outcome of trade talks. Forget the Mexico border wall. The real walls are the virtual and legal ones being built around Silicon Valley and other US tech hubs.

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