China’s ZTE may have cheated on US deal by installing Dell hardware for Venezuela, senators tell White House
- Senators Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen told top members of Donald Trump’s cabinet that ZTE helped build a surveillance system for Venezuela’s government
- But components of the system may have been provided by US tech firm Dell, in violation of commitments by ZTE to uphold American sanctions
Two senior US lawmakers known for their opposition to China’s telecommunications giant ZTE warned key members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet on Wednesday that the company’s business in Venezuela may have violated the terms of a settlement agreement it struck with the US government.
In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen cited a Reuters report about ZTE’s provision of a population database for the Venezuelan government.
The database, which, according to the Reuters report, allows the Venezuelan government to monitor its citizens through centralised video surveillance and other methods, has components manufactured by US IT infrastructure company Dell Technologies.
“ZTE installed data storage units built by Dell Technologies,” the letter said. “Though Dell’s transaction appears to have been with ZTE in China, we are concerned that ZTE may have violated US export controls by misidentifying the end-user or purpose of the end-use.”
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“The Venezuelan government hired ZTE to build a database and develop a mobile payment system for a smart ID card,” the letter said, citing the November 14 Reuters report. “In developing the database for this ID card, ZTE reportedly embedded its employees in a unit of Venezuela’s state telecommunications firm, CANTV – the president of which is subject to US sanctions.”
