China’s Ministry of Commerce has spoken out against the US sanctions against ZTE. The Ministry said that the move will ‘severely impair’ the commercial activities of Chinese firms.
The USA announced export restrictions on ZTE and three of its affiliates this week, for the alleged violation of US export controls on Iran. US manufacturers will be banned from selling components to ZTE. In addition, foreign manufacturers will be prohibited from selling products containing ‘a significant amount of US-made parts’ to the company.
The USA’s Commerce Department stated that, through a series of shell companies, ZTE planned ‘to illicitly re-export controlled items to Iran in violation of US export control laws.’
Intel, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are counted among ZTE’s suppliers, but none of them had a comment on the matter.
