Logos of FedEx and Huawei on display File photo: IC

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday called on US courier FedEx Corp to give a "reasonable" explanation and take responsibility for failing to deliver a Huawei smartphone to the US, while also urging the US to correct its "wrongful" actions against Chinese companies.

At a routine press briefing, FM spokesperson Geng Shuang pointed out that FedEx has mishandled Huawei packages not once but twice within a short period. "I wonder how FedEx reflects on these repeated mistakes related to Huawei within such a short time," he said, noting that as a multinational company, FedEx should explain and be responsible for its actions.

A PC Magazine writer revealed on his Twitter account that he tried to ship a Huawei P30 smartphone from a UK office to the US, yet surprisingly found that it was sent back a few days later. 

The US delivery company explained to the writer that this was because Huawei was put on the US "Entity List", meaning that US companies are restricted from doing business with it. But FedEx said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Sunday that the package had been "mistakenly returned" to the shipper and apologized for the "operational error."

In May, FedEx rerouted packages sent by Huawei to its offices in Asia and shipped them to the delivery company's headquarters in the US. The US company then apologized to Huawei at that time for "mistransportation."

Geng said that he does not have any information on whether FedEx could be put on China's soon-to-be released "unreliable entity list," but stressed that the US bullying not only hurts Chinese companies but also disrupts the normal operations of US companies and their normal cooperation with other companies. 

"The US abused claims of national security and cracked down on the Chinese company by making unwarranted charges. The move is the root cause of this issue and the US government is the initiator of the chaos," Geng said, urging the US government to immediately cease its wrongdoing and create conditions for normal business operations of companies in different countries and their normal cooperation.


Newspaper headline: Ministry demands explanation from FedEx over mishandling of Huawei package