Trump Approves Return of Chinese Company ZTE to the U.S.

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, announced that he has allowed the Chinese company ZTE to return to the U.S. market in exchange for a fine and business, management, and security conditions. The telecommunications company ZTE was fined $1.2 billion in March 2017 for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. Additionally, last month, access for two Chinese companies, Huawei and ZTE, to the U.S. market was limited or cut off. These restrictions were imposed due to U.S. suspicions that these companies were using their technologies for espionage against the U.S. ZTE is one of the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers, and its smartphones rank among the best-selling in the U.S. market after Apple, Samsung, and LG. However, Trump's decision to allow ZTE to operate again has faced opposition from several Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate. Senator Schumer tweeted on Friday, June 4, in protest of this agreement: 'This is a big deal for ZTE and China. China ruthlessly crushes American companies and uses these telecommunications companies for espionage and theft from us.' The Senate Democratic leader added: 'If the government implements this bogus agreement, President Trump has helped China become great again. A big win for President Xi (Jinping) and a huge retreat for President Trump. Both parties in Congress must unite to prevent this agreement from being implemented.' In response to the Democratic leader, Trump tweeted: 'Senator Schumer and his Obama administration allowed ZTE to thrive without any security oversight. I shut it down (in the U.S.) and allowed it to operate again with strict security guarantees, changes in management and board, and a requirement to buy American parts and pay a $1.3 billion fine. The Democrats do nothing...' The Associated Press reported that under the agreement between the U.S. government and ZTE, the current management of the company must be dismissed. The company must also hire American managers for 'risk assessment' and pay an additional fine, more than what ZTE had incurred for violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea. The U.S. Department of Commerce had sanctioned ZTE about two years ago for violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea. These restrictions were put in place after Reuters reported that this large Chinese company had signed contracts to sell millions of dollars worth of hardware and software produced by several well-known American companies to the Iranian telecommunications company. Among the American producers whose products were sold to Iran through this Chinese company are well-known names like Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Oracle, and Dell. All these companies have stated that they were unaware of the sale of their products to Iran. A year prior, the U.S. Department of Commerce had published documents showing that senior executives of this company were involved in exporting American goods to Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan, and Cuba.