ZTE steps up lobbying after spy fears block US contracts
Telecoms firm quadruples outlay on Washington insiders to sway Congress to lift de facto ban
ZTE more than quadrupled its spending on lobbying after a United States House of Representatives report warned that the telecommunications company's products may help the Chinese government spy on the US.
China's second-largest phone-equipment maker reported spending US$330,000 to lobby Congress in the first six months of this year - the most since it began lobbying in 2009, Senate records show. That compared with US$80,000 spent in the same period last year, according to company filings.
The increase followed a House Intelligence Committee report that effectively blacklisted ZTE's products, warning that the Shenzhen-based company's growth in the US might allow China to disrupt power grids or financial networks.
ZTE is following a well-worn path in bringing in advocates to blunt bad news in Washington, as was the case in the 1990s when Microsoft increased its lobbying while facing a Department of Justice antitrust suit.
"When a company is under attack, the classic thing is to hire the old Washington hands to plead their case," said Bill Allison, the editorial director of the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group in Washington.
ZTE declined to comment on why it increased its lobbying.