HSBC sets Huawei’s Meng in trap
Bank could face ‘dead end’ for colluding with US
New evidence Huawei has provided to a Canadian court shows how HSBC, the London-headquartered multinational bank, conspired with the US Department of Justice to set a “political trap” for Huawei and gave false testimony to the court, documents unveiled on Friday showed.
This evidence could drag the British bank – which is already facing growing controversy due to a series of misdeeds and its swaying stance over key issues in China – into a more dangerous situation, and it could become the very first to be targeted if China plans to retaliate, amid deteriorating China-UK ties, said observers.
The new evidence shows how HSBC deliberately set up a trap, pieced together materials and fabricated evidence, to frame Huawei, which may also bury the lender’s reputation and prospects in the industry, said analysts.
According to the new evidence, HSBC made large profits doing business with Huawei and understood the Chinese company’s relationship with Skycom, as there was a large amount of correspondence showing a normal business partnership. This evidence contradicted grounds for charging
“China has been evaluating putting the firm onto the country’s unreliable entity list, which is entirely reasonable.” Cui Hongjian director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies
Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou. The US accuses Meng of defrauding HSBC into violating US sanctions against Iran by failing to disclose the relationship between Huawei and Skycom.
Meng is accused of lying to an HSBC executive in Hong Kong in August 2013 about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom. However, the evidence indicated that HSBC understood this relationship but intentionally sold out its customer’s confidential business documents to the US side so that the US government could overlook the British bank’s own misconduct and not punish it under the 2012 Deferred Prosecution Agreement.
If Huawei’s evidence against the lender is proven to be true, the charges against Meng Wanzhou will no longer have any foundation, and HSBC should be prepared for a “harsh punishment” in China, such as being sued in Chinese courts, one Beijing-based observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times.
The evidence also comes amid growing tensions between China and the UK. London has just banned the Chinese telecom equipment provider from the construction of the country’s 5G network last week – a decision China said it is “seriously concerned” about and will “comprehensively assess.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry accused the UK of using “fabricated risks” as an excuse to cooperate with the Trump administration in discriminating against and excluding Chinese firms, prompting speculation that Beijing could take countermeasures against London, and HSBC could become the first target.
“China has been evaluating putting the firm onto the country’s unreliable entity list, which is entirely reasonable,” Cui Hongjian, the director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Friday.