FedEx on Friday issued a response to Chinese authorities' investigation findings that the courier company's 'mishandling' of Huawei packages 'does not match with facts.'

The Chinese authorities announced on Friday that they had also found clues showing that FedEx violated other laws and illegally withheld over 100 packages related to Huawei.

Responding to the China State Post Bureau investigation findings, FedEx said it would continue to cooperate with the Chinese authorities fully and remains committed to full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. 

FedEx attributes the recurring 'mishandling' of Huawei packages to the ambiguous order from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

"These shipments in question were handled whilst we were trying to comply with the U.S. DOC BIS order which was unclear and resulted in considerable complexity for our operations," FedEx said, reiterating that it initiated the suit against the U.S. DOC to prevent similar occurrences happening in the future. 

MOFA: comprehensive, objective and fair investigation will continue

At Friday's press conference, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the results of the investigation would determine FedEx's fate.

"I believe relevant departments of the Chinese government will follow the principles of being comprehensive, objective, and fair, and continue their investigation into the case. The results will determine the consequences FedEx will have to face," she said.

Monthlong investigation finds several discrepancies

The Chinese State Post Bureau investigation started on June 1 after Huawei complainted about FedEx’s failure to deliver four of its packages in late May. Huawei said the packages were intercepted by FedEx and diverted to the U.S., while FedEx claimed the problem was caused by shipment errors. 

The 'operational error' occurred again in late June when the UK office of America's PC Magazine sent a Huawei cellphone to its U.S. office for testing, but the cellphone was returned by FedEx for violating the U.S. government's ban on Huawei.

Soon afterward, FedEx sued the U.S. Department of Commerce. It's June 24 filing says the department’s Export Administration Regulations, or EAR, places an unreasonable burden on the company to police millions of shipments every day. It adds that FedEx is a transportation company, not a law enforcement agency.

Huawei, FedEx 'victims' of U.S.-China trade war

All these moves come against the backdrop of a US-China trade dispute that has lasted for 16 months. Huawei is one of the Chinese companies that has been targeted the most by the U.S. government. 

Washington recently put the company on an "entity list" along with other Chinese companies and banned it from buying sensitive technologies from U.S. companies, citing national security concerns. This move triggered FedEx’s shipping problems with Huawei packages.

The Huawei-FedEx case implies that normal business operations between the U.S. and China have already been affected by the bilateral trade frictions.

Negotiating teams from China and the U.S. have held 11 rounds of talks to ease trade frictions. They were brought back on the right track in June, thanks to a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump during the G20 summit in Osaka Japan. The two sides will resume their face to face trade talks next week in Shanghai.

(Wang Hui also contributed to the story)