Republican Senators drop bid to block President Trump from helping Chinese telecom giant ZTE

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Bowing to White House demands, Republican Senators have backed off their attempt to reimpose US sanctions on the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE. The retreat means ZTE, a company found guilty of selling US goods to Iran in violation of sanctions, will duck Commerce Department penalties that bar US companies from doing business with it. Chinese officials said those penalties would effectively put ZTE out of business.

President Trump had ordered his own Commerce Department to lift the penalties, but Senators wanted to reimpose them as part of a sweeping defense policy bill set to be unveiled the week of July 23. They have now agreed to language advanced by the House instead, which bars government contractors from doing business with ZTE but allows the company to continue doing business with private US firms. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) blasted the decision, saying, “By stripping the Senate’s tough ZTE sanctions provision from the defense bill, President Trump – and the congressional Republicans who acted at his behest – have once again made President Xi and the Chinese government the big winners and the American worker and our national security the big losers.”


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