FedEx in misrouting row again

Reuters

FedEx Corp has apologized for another Huawei delivery “mistake.”

The firm said on Sunday that it returned a package — identified as containing a Huawei phone — due to an “operational error,” and that it would deliver all products made by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to addresses other than those of Huawei and affiliates placed on a US national security blacklist.

China’s foreign ministry yesterday asked for a full explanation as to why the US-bound handset was returned to its sender, a Britain-based writer for US publication PC Magazine, which later reported about the matter.

The incident comes as Chinese authorities investigate FedEx for misrouting packages sent by Huawei last month. China is also drawing up an Unreliable Entities List of foreign firms, groups and individuals.

The list mirrors the US Entity List that Huawei was added to in May, essentially barring it from buying US technology upon which it was reliant.

FedEx rival United Parcel Service Inc also confirmed that it would not ship to Huawei addresses on the Entity List but had no “general ban” on Huawei products.

A Huawei spokesman told Reuters that the Chinese firm was currently not using either FedEx or UPS services. On Sunday, Huawei tweeted it was not within FedEx’s right to prevent the delivery and said the courier had a “vendetta.”

The latest incident sparked renewed criticism of FedEx on Chinese social media, with the topic “FedEx apologizes again” trending on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog platform.

FedEx’s operational error comes against a backdrop of increasing tension between the world’s two biggest economies. The United States and China have been engaged in a trade fight for nearly a year on issues such as tariffs, subsidies, technology, regulations and cyber security.