China suspects that FedEx misrepresented the facts over re-routing of Huawei packages, Xinhua says
- China has found that FedEx’s previous statement that the incident was down to operation errors, was inconsistent with the facts
China, which is soon expected to publish a list of “unreliable” foreign entities deemed to have damaged the interests of local firms, said it suspects that FedEx violated the law by not making shipments of goods from telecoms giant Huawei to recipients, according to state-backed news agency Xinhua.
Relevant Chinese state departments found that FedEx’s previous statement on the incident, which said that the re-routing of Huawei packages to the US was down to an “operational error”, was inconsistent with the facts, Xinhua said on Friday, without elaborating further.
In addition, regulators found that FedEx had held back more than 100 Huawei-related shipments, according to the Xinhua report, adding that further information had come to light as a result of an investigation.
The relevant state departments will uphold the principles of “comprehensiveness, objectivity and fairness and continue to carry out an in-depth investigation in accordance with the laws”, according to Xinhua.
The issue has taken on added significance at a time when the world’s two biggest economies are engaged in a raging tech war, which escalated further when the US government in May placed Huawei and its affiliates on a trade blacklist that bars the group from buying hardware, software and services from American hi-tech suppliers without US approval.
“We have and will continue to fully cooperate with the Chinese authorities on the investigation and we are committed to full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations,” said FedEx in a statement on Friday. “These shipments in question were handled while we were trying to comply with the US Department of Commerce order, which was unclear and resulted in considerable complexity for our operations.”
Huawei declined to comment on the report.