HSBC Defends Help It Gave in Huawei Probe -- WSJ
July 27 2020 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Margot Patrick
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 27, 2020).
HSBC Holdings PLC has issued a statement defending its
cooperation with U.S. prosecutors in a case against China's Huawei
Technologies Co. after Chinese state media said the bank had set
Huawei up.
HSBC said the U.S. Justice Department made formal requests for
information about Huawei, a former HSBC client, and that it didn't
"set a trap" for Huawei to break U.S. sanctions, as Chinese
newspaper People's Daily wrote in an article Friday. The statement
comes amid intensifying U.S.-China tensions over trade, Hong Kong
and Huawei that have put HSBC in the crosshairs as an Asia-focused
trade bank with a large U.S. operation.
Huawei and People's Daily didn't immediately respond to requests
for comment.
In the statement, first released on Chinese social media and
geared toward a local audience, HSBC said it wasn't involved in the
DOJ's decision to investigate Huawei or to arrest Huawei finance
chief Meng Wanzhou and doesn't have any hostility to the company.
It said it relies on communities understanding that international
banks must follow international rules, and that they should
consider "the values and contributions of their services provided
to international customers and local markets."
The bank, based in London but with most of its revenue coming
from Hong Kong and China, has been under pressure from Chinese
state media for more than a year for having handed over documents
in the Huawei case. At the time, in 2016, HSBC was being monitored
by the Justice Department as part of a 2012 settlement over
sanctions breaches and money laundering. Huawei lawyers alleged
this year in Canada that the DOJ's grip on the bank gave HSBC a
motive to present Huawei as the mastermind of its sanctions
violations. HSBC denies that.
The U.S. has sought to ban Huawei from its own and other
countries' telecommunications networks and is seeking the
extradition from Canada of Ms. Meng for allegedly misleading banks
about ties between Huawei and an affiliated company in Iran. The
banks, which included HSBC, cleared hundreds of millions of dollars
in transactions that potentially violated international sanctions,
the U.S. alleges. Ms. Meng and Huawei deny any wrongdoing. HSBC
isn't a party in that case.
The spat between HSBC and the Chinese press comes two weeks
after the British government said it would bar telecom companies
from purchasing new equipment made by Huawei for their 5G networks.
The decision marked a victory for the U.S. in its attempts to
isolate the company and was seen as retaliation by Britain for
China's recent imposition of a new national security law in Hong
Kong. The law, criticized by many Western governments, was backed
by HSBC's top executive in the region in a rare public political
statement by the bank.
The recent tensions have cast a light on the tightrope HSBC
walks as Hong Kong's home bank and as a financier of global trade
with U.S. dollars. It was founded in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865
and competes with U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.
and Citigroup Inc., in connecting multinational companies to
markets and helping them manage cash.
In its statement Saturday, HSBC said it is "rooted in China" and
a "supporter of its economic and social development."
Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 27, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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