Trade war; South Korea in a fix, caught in US-China crossfire over Huawei

Less than a week after Huawei Technologies was blacklisted by the United States, more than a hundred South Korean politicians and business leaders toured the Chinese tech giant’s headquarters and its lavish new campus outside Shenzhen.

Executives from firms such as Samsung Electronics watched demonstrations of high-speed robotics and smart city simulations powered by Huawei’s next-generation 5G network equipment. The event was part of a Seoul-backed forum aimed at building tighter tech links between China and Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

But the gathering was overshadowed by the U.S. decision early this month to ban American tech and telecom firms from doing business with Huawei, and a push to get companies around the world to follow suit.