For about 18 months, the United States, under the direct leadership of President Donald Trump, and the People’s Republic of China have lashed out at one another with tariffs on many thousands of goods exported from one country to the other and vice-versa. Although some businesses have become marked targets by each of the governments, most of them have managed to stay off of the radars of the two governing bodies, which are the two strongest economic powerhouses on the planet.
FedEx, one of the largest couriers here in the United States, has managed to become an enemy of China for allegedly not shipping packages from the United States into the country and vice-versa.
One of the most recent developments in the changing relations between the Chinese federal government and FedEx came in the form of the detention of an American pilot working for FedEx. According to a recent story published by the Wall Street Journal, which was released earlier this week, pilot Todd A. Hohn was apprehended by the Chinese government while innocently occupying one of China’s largest airports, which was located in Guangzhou, a large city that carries a major portion of all the air traffic that goes through China.
According to Chinese officials, the reason that they took Todd A. Hohn in for roughly a week before releasing him was because his bag contained a container full of pellets that are routinely used as ammo in airsoft rifles and other gas-powered rifles. The Chinese authorities entered into an investigation shorty after they took the FedEx pilot to jail into why he was transporting ammunition for a weapon similar to a firearm – even though the pellets had nothing to do with gunpowder or any explosives to be shot, the Chinese government obviously did not take too kindly to what the pilot was in possession of in one of the country’s most highly trafficked airports.
News of the detention of Todd A. Hohn by Chinese authorities only came out earlier today, on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, when a spokesperson working for FedEx penned an official company letter to the business news publication Business Insider. Writers for the publication had heard of rumors that the major courier service provider had one of its workers detained in China for a week and decided to reach out to FedEx for comment, to which the aforementioned letter was written.
Dil Bole Oberoi
