Donald Trump gets his way as US lifts ZTE ban, allowing company to continue despite senators’ opposition
The move lets ZTE again buy American parts, but a case that has set Donald Trump against Congress isn’t quite done yet
The US has lifted a nearly three-month-long ban on ZTE Corp at the urging of US President Donald Trump, removing sanctions that had crippled the Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer.
The removal of the ban by the US Commerce Department on Friday lets China’s second largest telecoms gear maker resume buying American-made components that are crucial to its products, saving it from almost certain closure. Trump has said the move is intended to help negotiations during the ongoing US-China trade war.
But both the ZTE deal and Trump’s wider trade policies have faced opposition from Congress members on both sides of the aisle – highlighting the gap between the White House’s thinking and that of the wider Republican Party, and pitting the president against his own side.
In his announcement on Friday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross promised that the company would continue to face scrutiny by US authorities, who previously slapped down the sanctions after the company dealt with both Iran and North Korea.
[No-one can say] where this is headed, nor what the plans are, nor what the strategy is. It seems to be a ‘wake up, ready, fire, aim’ strategy
“While we lifted the ban on ZTE, the department will remain vigilant as we closely monitor ZTE’s actions to ensure compliance with all US laws and regulations,” Ross said.
But opposition in Congress has not been mollified by Ross’s continued promises, or the US$1 billion fine levied on ZTE. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have passed amendments in their versions of a defence appropriations bill to restore the ban, either in part or whole.
The two versions of the bills, including those amendments, are now being reconciled in committee, with a target deadline of the end of the month. The White House has previously said that it intends to intervene at this stage to encourage the wording to be changed to allow ZTE to operate.
On Thursday, a bipartisan group of six US senators made another effort to reinstate the ban, stating in a letter to the reconciling committee that ZTE, along with Huawei, another telecoms giant, “are beholden to the Chinese government and Communist Party, which provides the capacity for espionage and intellectual property theft, and therefore poses clear threats to the national security, people, and economy of the United States”.