On September 25th, Xiamen Hithium Energy Storage released an official statement titled “Statement Regarding Recent Network Incorrect Information.” This came one day after Chinese news outlets reported on Hithium’s partnership with Reliance Industries going back to Q4 2023. The statement was solely released in China via WeChat and then translated. Though it is clear that their intention was meant to refute the reporting of the Chinese outlets, instead of denying the existence of any partnership, Hithium’s response has only confirmed the reporting and deepened suspicion that there might be more than what first meets the eye.

In the statement, Hithium states that “some related reports regarding technical cooperation with Indian companies contain serious inaccuracies.” Notably, it never once states that there is no partnership between Hithium and Reliance Industries. The company carefully avoids using Reliance’s name altogether, despite every Chinese and Indian media outlet explicitly identifying it as the key partner in question. Instead, Hithium takes issue only with the accuracy of how the story was reported, describing the coverage as “seriously out of date.”

By calling the reports “out of date” rather than “false,” Hithium skirts around actually addressing the reports of the cooperation between themselves and Reliance Industries. If indeed there were no relationship, it would have been easy to issue a direct and categorical denial. A simple sentence such as “Hithium has no partnership or business relationship with Reliance Industries” would have settled the matter entirely. Instead, the company’s language is vague and defensive, avoiding the question it claims to answer.

The bulk of the statement focuses on the alleged misinformation that Hithium describes as “malicious attacks” and “rumors” targeting its senior management. It warns that online speculation has “misled the public, harmed business operations, and disrupted normal order,” and it reserves the right to pursue legal action against those spreading “unverified information.” Yet again, this is not a denial or an explanation of said misinformation but a quick and easy way to say a lot of nothing.

Hithium’s message was released within 24 hours after Sina Finance and Guancha.cn published their reports highlighting the company’s secret partnership with Reliance Industries. Given how tightly controlled Chinese media typically is, it is unlikely that those reports were published without prior approval. Hithium’s reaction therefore appears less like a genuine clarification and more like a desperate attempt at saving face.

In trying to deny the story, Hithium has instead confirmed it indirectly. Its refusal to issue a straightforward statement rejecting any partnership with Reliance Industries, combined with its insistence that the reports are simply “inaccurate” or “outdated,” confirms that some form of cooperation has taken place or is taking place. The Reliance Industries and Hithium partnership, which before was only confirmed by shipping records, LinkedIn information, and international outlets, all of which corroborated earlier reports from international media outlets like CNBC, and Entrepreneur , is now openly acknowledged, even if neither side is yet willing to say it outright.