Low profile Panda International said to have helped Huawei ship US tech equipment to Iran in violation of sanctions
- Some of the documents suggest Huawei regularly used Panda International to ship equipment to customers in Iran as well as Syria
It has been doing business for 16 years and was once promoted by China’s president in a meeting with a foreign leader, but even most Chinese people had never heard of Panda International until it was linked to a controversial telecoms project in Iran.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that newly obtained records show Panda International, which was not named in a US indictment against Huawei Technologies for sanction violations involving Iran, was involved in acquiring hardware and software for Huawei’s wireless telecoms projects in the country.
Two Huawei packing lists, dated December 2010, included Hewlett Packard computer equipment that was destined for delivery to Iran’s mobile telecoms carrier, internal Huawei documents reviewed by Reuters showed. Another Huawei document, dated two months later, stated: “Currently the equipment is delivered to Tehran, and waiting for the custom clearance.”
Some of the documents suggest Huawei regularly used Panda International to ship equipment to customers in Iran as well as Syria. Last July, a report from The Washington Post also revealed the close relationship between Huawei and Panda, accusing Huawei of using Panda as the conduit to provide North Korea with base stations, antennas and other equipment.
A call made Tuesday to a mobile telephone number listed on Panda’s website went unanswered.
In 2014, the US Department of Commerce added Panda International to its Entity List, which blocked the company from buying American-made technology. The DoC said Panda International may have attempted “to export items to destinations sanctioned by the United States,” but made no mention of its relationship with Huawei at that time.