The strategic rivalry between China and the United States has incited an outbreak of historical analogies - Athens versus Sparta, the United Kingdom versus Wilhelmine Germany, or the US versus the Soviet Union.
But the fracas over the US' actions against telecommunications giant Huawei recalls another antecedent: the US' pre-World War II pressure campaign against Japan, culminating in then President Franklin Roosevelt's momentous decision in July 1941 to freeze Japan's assets in the US.
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