HSBC Holdings has issued a statement defending its cooperation with US prosecutors in a case against China’s Huawei Technologies after Chinese state media said the bank had set Huawei up.

HSBC said the US Justice Department made formal requests for information about Huawei, a former HSBC client, and that it didn’t “set a trap” for Huawei to break US sanctions, as Chinese newspaper People’s Daily wrote in an article on 24 July. The statement comes amid intensifying US-China tensions over trade, Hong Kong and Huawei that have put HSBC in the crosshairs as an Asia-focused trade bank with a large US operation.