HSBC Holdings Plc has dismissed media reports in China that it "framed" Chinese telecom group Huawei over its relations with the company and stated that it did not trigger a U.S. investigation of the multinational technology firm.
Washington's probe into Huawei - for what U.S. officials claim infringed on U.S. punishment on Iran - was carried out prior to the lender's involvement with the telecoms group in late 2016, HSBC disclosed on Saturday in its first public comments about Huawei's legal tussle in North America.
HSBC said it has no ill intent on Huawei and did not put the latter in a bad light in what was made to appear as entrapping the telecoms equipment provider. The bank said it only released information to the U.S. Justice Department when it was forced to do so and that it had no hand in the decision to investigate the company.
The bank's statement comes a day after China's People's Daily newspaper published a report that accused the London-based lender of fabricating evidence and being an accessory of the U.S. and lied about Huawei that resulted in the apprehension of the company's chief finance officer, Meng Wanzhou.
U.S. authorities accused Meng of bank fraud for misleading HSBC regarding Huawei's ties with an entity operating in Iran, putting the bank at risk of heavy fines and penalties for violating U.S. sanctions on the Islamic State. Last week, Meng's legal advisers disclsoed that HSBC had full knowledge of Huawei's operations in Iran, but claimed ignorance to steer clear of U.S. retribution.
U.S. investigations led to Canada's arrest of Meng in December 2018 under orders of U.S. Justice officials. Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, has since been placed under house arrest in Vancouver, where she and her legal team are putting up a defense against extradition to the U.S. to face charges.
In its WeChat post, without directly mentioning the People's Daily story, HSBC disclosed that the context of the development of the Chinese tech group's proceeding "clearly shows that the U.S. investigation of Huawei was not triggered by HSBC," Gabriel Crossley of Reuters quoted the bank's post in his report.
The commotion in China's media circuit is the latest wrangling for HSBC, as ties worsened between Beijing and Washington. HSBC, which has earned disparaging remarks and denouncements on social media for over a year in China, had previously kept mum and limited its engagements online, until last week's fiery narratives by China's two most prominent newspapers.
