HSBC Refutes Reports That It 'Fabricated Evidence' Against Huawei

On Saturday, HSBC strongly refuted Chinese media reports that it had "fabricated evidence" to frame Huawei Technologies. They also denied accusations that they played a role in the arrest of the tech giant's chief financial officer (CFO).

According to a report, the London-based bank took to the Chinese messaging app WeChat and said that it had nothing to do with why the United States' Department of Justice had decided to investigate Huawei.

The said statement came in response to a report that had been published by China's official People’s Daily newspaper a day before which detailed accusations that HSBC, being an accomplice of the United States, had framed Huawei. The report also suggests that the said actions of Huawei had let to the detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.

It can be recalled that Meng had been arrested at Vancouver International Airport, Canada in late 2018 due to a warrant from the U.S. The warrant had accused Meng of bank fraud due to its ties with an Iranian company and for breaching U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

The bank's post on WeChat did not directly cite the report published by People's Daily but it had contradicted most of the details. It said, “HSBC has no malice against Huawei, nor has it ‘framed’ Huawei."

In defense, it said that the information they provided to the U.S. Department of Justice's information requests was only based on true and factual information and had not falsified nor concealed any information. The bank maintains that it wil continue to protect its customers' protection.

From the report, People's Daily had alleged that the bank had known about Huawei's partnerships in Iran since 2012, and have since been planning to entrap Huawei.

China Global Television Network, formerly CCTV International, is another Chinese media company that had been making the same allegations.

Meng continues to fight extradition to the U.S. but if proven guilty, she will potentially be facing up to 10 years of imprisonment per U.S. criminal procedures on the theft of trade secrets.