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Police in southeast China say they seized a handgun from a FedEx parcel sent from the US and an investigation is under way. Photo: AP

China police investigating FedEx package containing handgun sent from US to Chinese sporting goods firm

  • Officers in southeast China confirm probe is under way, without giving further details
  • American delivery services giant believed to be candidate for China’s new ‘unreliable entity list’

An investigation has been launched after a FedEx package containing a handgun was sent by a US client to a Chinese sporting goods company in Fuzhou, Fujian province, local police confirmed to the South China Morning Post.

Jinan police station, under the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau, said in a statement on Sunday evening that officers from the district had seized the gun and an investigation was under way.

The statement did not say whether the package contained more than one handgun or release the identities of either the sender or recipient.

Tang Liang, director of the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau’s publicity department, confirmed the authenticity of a report by the official Xinhua News Agency, without giving further details.

I cannot reveal more details as the case is still under investigation. Please stay tuned to our official Weibo account for updates
Tang Liang

“I cannot reveal more details as the case is still under investigation,” he said. “Please stay tuned to our official Weibo account for updates.”

A FedEx representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case was reported just days after Washington announced that it had added China General Nuclear Power Group, the country’s biggest state-owned nuclear firm, to its “entity list”, effectively banning US companies from doing business with it without a special licence.

Beijing said the US move was “just an excuse” to penalise another Chinese firm and that “most Chinese companies have already prepared for the worst since the start of the trade war”.

Chinese telecoms equipment company Huawei Technologies was placed on the US entity list in mid-May but has received two consecutive 90-day reprieves to do some business with US firms.

FedEx is believed to be among the first companies that China may add to its own “unreliable entity list”.

The Chinese government began an investigation into FedEx in late May after the company reportedly delivered packages sent from Japan to the US that were intended for Huawei in China.

Soon after its report on the package sent to Fuzhou, Xinhua published a commentary condemning FedEx’s operations in China, accusing the company of “cooperating with the US government’s long-arm jurisdiction” to apply US law to foreign firms operating outside the US.

“Since the US government put Huawei on its so-called entity list in May this year, FedEx has repeatedly messed about with Huawei’s deliveries … FedEx has threatened China’s national security and has violated Chinese law. These are not accidental business mistakes, but lawbreaking offences,” the commentary read.

FedEx acquired Tianjin Datian W. Group’s (DTW) domestic express network in China in 2007 to start domestic delivery in the country. FedEx also acquired a 50 per cent share of the FedEx-DTW International Priority express joint venture. The two acquisitions cost around US$400 million in cash, according to the FedEx website. The US delivery giant started operating in China in 1984. It now delivers across more than 200 cities in China.

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