Senate rejects Trump's ZTE lifeline

[midian182]

What just happened? It looked as if ZTE had been handed an expensive lifeline by Donald Trump last month when it signed a $1 billion deal with the US government to lift a trade ban. But the President's plans could be thwarted by the US Senate, which has just voted against removing the sanctions placed on the Chinese tech giant.

After admitting to selling US-made technology to Iran and North Korea, thereby violating US sanctions, ZTE agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and discipline the employees responsible. For failing to follow through with parts of the agreement, US companies were prohibited from selling to ZTE for seven years in April.

With around 30 percent of the components in ZTE products coming from US businesses, including Qualcomm, Intel, and Microsoft, the company ceased “major operating activities” one month after the ban. But soon after, Trump tweeted that he wanted to help ZTE “get back into business.”

President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

When it was reported that the firm had agreed to pay over $1 billion to resume trade with its US suppliers, it seemed that Trump had lived up to his words. But the Senate has put the brakes on his plan.

A military spending bill called the National Defense Authorization Act was just passed by lawmakers by a vote of 85 to 10. It includes a provision that blocks the deal with ZTE and reinstates sanctions on the company, all in the name of national security.

Trump faced criticism for his willingness to remove the ban on ZTE, especially as US intelligence agencies have issued warnings that the company’s products could be used for spying purposes—a result of its close ties with the Chinese government.

The bill must still be reconciled with the version passed by the house, which does not include the ZTE provision. It then needs to be signed by Trump before it can become law.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75144-senate-rejects-trump-zte-lifeline.html

 

[VitalyT]

Business first, politics later, that's Trump's mantra. Who cares if he is the president, if even he doesn't, evidently.

 

[Puiu]

Business first, politics later, that's Trump's mantra. Who cares if he is the president, if even he doesn't, evidently.

Allowing this to pass would turn into a dangerous precedence. Anybody could break international law if all they faced was some fines.

 

[MonsterZero]

Classic Trump, business first. That's how we got into this current shithole of a country that we're in right now.

Remember to vote democrat in 2020.

 

[Tanstar]

Classic Trump, business first. That's how we got into this current shithole of a country that we're in right now.

Remember to vote democrat in 2020.

Democrats will need to offer a better Candidate than they did in 2016.

 

[petert]

Baah

 

[MaXtor]

Remember to vote democrat in 2020.

Democrats will need to reject identity politics and stop attacking their own free-thinkers. It's time for the left to embrace individualism and stop pushing more and more people from the left towards the right. Without some unforeseen change by the left or a severe economic crash, Trump is undoubtedly guaranteed a second term.

 

[senketsu]

It's a tough balancing act. Without China you cannot make progress on North Korea. So you try to cozy up a little to China (probably not good) to defuse North Korea (which is good) and the only thing left which is certain is that however you try to do it you will get flak from critics on the right and the left.
This criticism is one reason why 'real politicians' avoid addressing anything divisive because they know it will cost them votes and possibly re-election. This is unfortunate because many of the ills of our society have no black and white solutions and are divisive by nature (create strong emotion among those for and against any proposed plans)

 

[cliffordcooley]

Without China you cannot make progress on North Korea. So you try to cozy up a little to China (probably not good) to defuse North Korea (which is good) and the only thing left which is certain is that however you try to do it you will get flak from critics on the right and the left.

Yeah, I don't buy into that line of thought. When people settle for burning one house instead of one hundred. That is usually an impulsive decision based on inpatients. Because once we work the figures from one hundred down to one, we are no longer willing to continue looking for 0. And then we have the audacity to call the one an acceptable lose. We even have the arrogance to start the one house burning, under the pretense of preventing others.

 

[captaincranky]

Yeah, I don't buy into that line of thought. When people settle for burning one house instead of one hundred. That is usually an impulsive decision based on inpatients. Because once we work the figures from one hundred down to one, we are no longer willing to continue looking for 0. And then we have the audacity to call the one an acceptable lose. We even have the arrogance to start the one house burning, under the pretense of preventing others.

Dear god Cliff, and to think people accuse me of never coming up for air.