Trump says he’s helping Chinese telecom company that broke US sanctions selling products to Iran and North Korea
China has said it "greatly appreciates the positive US position on the ZTE issue" after US President Donald Trump said
the US Commerce Department has been “instructed to get it done” to save
jobs at China’s biggest telecommunications company, ZTE, which broke US
sanctions laws with North Korea and Iran.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China
welcomed the US president's efforts to help regain jobs for the
telecommunications giant just ahead of the two countries' trade
negotiations. Mr Trump tweeted on 13 March: "Too many jobs in China
lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!" The White
House later said it expected Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to make a decision about ZTE independently.
ZTE admitted to illegally selling
equipment made with American components to Iran. This was even before Mr
Trump’s decision that the US would no longer participate in the
six-party Iran nuclear deal and renew and place even more sanctions on Tehran. The company also sold products to North Korea, which the US and United Nations have placed strict sanctions upon until it agrees to halt development on its nuclear pr
Mr Ross said at the time that the company’s “egregious
behaviour cannot be ignored” and again noted today that the company did
violate US sanctions. In light of the president’s tweet, Mr Ross said
that the sanctions on ZTE are an “enforcement action, separate from
trade”.
However, he noted that his agency will “explore promptly alternative remedies” for ZTE to possibly re-enter the US market.
Members of Congress like Democratic Senator Chuck
Schumer are opposed to Mr Trump’s efforts to work with Chinese President
Xi Jinping to bring back jobs to the company. "One of the few areas
where the president and I agreed, and I was vocally supportive, was his
approach towards China. But even here he is backing off, and his policy
is now designed to achieve one goal: make China great again,” Mr Schumer
said.
China has said it "greatly appreciates the positive US position on the ZTE issue" after US President Donald Trump said
the US Commerce Department has been “instructed to get it done” to save
jobs at China’s biggest telecommunications company, ZTE, which broke US
sanctions laws with North Korea and Iran.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China
welcomed the US president's efforts to help regain jobs for the
telecommunications giant just ahead of the two countries' trade
negotiations. Mr Trump tweeted on 13 March: "Too many jobs in China
lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!" The White
House later said it expected Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to make a decision about ZTE independently.
ZTE admitted to illegally selling
equipment made with American components to Iran. This was even before Mr
Trump’s decision that the US would no longer participate in the
six-party Iran nuclear deal and renew and place even more sanctions on Tehran. The company also sold products to North Korea, which the US and United Nations have placed strict sanctions upon until it agrees to halt development on its nuclear p
"I hope this isn't the beginning of backing
down to China," Mr Rubio tweeted, ahead of the upcoming trade talks
between Beijing and Washington. He noted that China has “unrestricted”
access to the American market, but that American companies have been
“ruined” because China blocked its market to them and “stole their
intellectual property”.
It was just in April 2018 that the US Department of
Commerce had forbidden American companies from selling ZTE products for
at least seven years after the admission the company had sold its he company shut its main business operations last week as a
result. Sources briefed on the matter told Reuters Beijing had demanded
the ZTE issue be resolved as a prerequisite for broader trade
negotiations set to take place soon.
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