The bill for Chinese co-operation on the making nice with murderous despots may be coming due as drumpf today tweets out his “concern” for the well being of a Chinese Phone Maker that was banned from selling in the U.S. for bypassing U.S. sanctions against selling American components used in making their products to Iran, and on the recommendation of the U.S. IC that suspects that ZTE is spying on U.S. citizens.
“After pleading guilty to charges of violating sanctions and illegally shipping US goods to Iran, ZTE agreed to pay almost $900 million in finesin 2017, with up to $300 million in possible additional damages. However, it seems those penalties weren’t enough for Uncle Sam, because today the US Department of Commerce slapped the Chinese phone maker with a ban preventing American companies from selling components to ZTE for the next seven years.
While the original sanctions case was settled last March, the new ban follows multiple statements by major US Intelligence agencies earlier this year questioning the trustworthiness of Chinese networking giantsHuawei and ZTE. Heads of the NSA, FBI, and CIA cited concerns that both companies may be using their technology to spy on US consumers, and then sharing that data with the Chinese government, though none of those agencies has provided evidence of that behavior actually taking place.
In addition to being banned from buying parts from US companies, ZTE agreed to dismiss four of its senior employees, while also pledging to discipline 35 others. That said, according to US officials, it seems ZTE has yet to follow through on the latter.The ban, while quite severe, doesn’t explicitly prevent ZTE from selling smartphones and other devices commercially in the US. However, with companies like Intel, Microsoft, and most notably Qualcomm (which makes the processors found in a large number of ZTE phones), no longer able to supply parts, ZTE will be forced to overhaul its entire supply chain if it wants to continue to do business here.”
Hey, @realDonaldChump I thought the idea was to put America first and worry about American jobs!
I suppose there might be pressure from those companies selling parts to ZTE to ease up on them, or are you quidding the ole pro quo to repay Xi for bringing pressure on the fratricidal Kim to pretend to make nice and aid your delusional quest to match Obama’s Nobel Prize?
Inquiring minds want to know.