Beijing targets FedEx as US-China trade war escalates
Dean Cheng, of the Heritage Foundation Asian Studies Center, on the mounting Trump administration trade tensions with China.
As the U.S.-China trade war continues to escalate, Beijing has signaled its newest target: FedEx.
Ahead of Chinese officials’ planned announcement on Sunday about their position on trade talks with the U.S., China opened a probe into FedEx’s "wrongful delivery of packages," according to Bloomberg. The investigation follows a decision by the Trump administration several weeks ago to impose a ban on business with Chinese telecom firm Huawei.
On Saturday, Chinese retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. goods kicked in, after the Trump administration raised tariffs on Chinese goods worth $200 billion to 25 percent, from 10 percent.
"China's relevant government department has decided to file a case for investigation of FedEx on suspicion of undermining the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese clients," Xinhua, the official state-run press agency of China, said on Saturday.
According to Reuters, FedEx apologized this week for delivery errors on Huawei packages following reports that packages were returned to senders. Huawei accused FedEx of shipping two packages containing documents destined for Huawei in China to the U.S. without authorization, Reuters reported. Now, China's biggest tech company said it’s reviewing its relationship with the U.S. delivery service.
"The U.S. company has recently failed to deliver express packages to designated addresses in China, seriously damaging the lawful rights and interests of its clients and violating laws and regulations governing the express industry in China," Xinhua added.
In a statement, the company said it values its business in China and its relationship with Chinese clients, including Huawei.
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"FedEx will fully cooperate with any regulatory investigation into how we serve our customers," the company said on Saturday.