Congress is abandoning an effort to clamp down on the Chinese telecom giant ZTE Corp (中興通訊) in a defense bill, essentially green-lighting a deal by US President Donald Trump’s administration to save a company that was accused of selling sensitive information to hostile regimes, aides said on Friday.
Senators from both parties on Friday expressed outrage that the revised defense legislation, which is to be unveiled early next week, guts a provision to reinstate penalties and restrict the Chinese company’s ability to buy US parts.
ZTE was almost forced out of business after being accused of selling sensitive information to Iran and North Korea, in violation of trade laws.
Senator Marco Rubio, an architect of the anti-ZTE language in the defense bill, said on Twitter that he was surprised that US House of Representatives and Senate leaders negotiating the compromise “caved so easily.”
Democratic Senator Mark Warner called the outcome “a huge mistake.”
“Beyond frustrated that Republican leaders are caving to the Trump Administration’s demands on ZTE. This can only make our country less safe,” he tweeted.
Both lawmakers are members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and have raised concerns about the Chinese company and the White House’s approach to it.
Congress was pressured by the White House to yield, with the administration making clear to lawmakers that it viewed the language as tying its hands, a source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Republican-controlled Senate tucked the ZTE language into the annual defense bill this summer, delivering a rare rebuke of the White House after it eased up on the telecom company.
While the House version of the defense bill blocked US government purchases and contracting with ZTE, the Senate version went further, reinstating penalties on the company and blocking export provisions.
An aide said the group of House and Senate lawmakers who were appointed to negotiate a compromise between the two bills thought the Senate went too far in inserting Congress into the administration’s decisionmaking.
House Committee on Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry viewed it as a separation of power issue.
The aide was granted anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the talks.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that the outcome was another example of Trump “being weak” toward foreign leaders “while Republicans just follow along.”
The US Department of Commerce in April barred ZTE from importing US components for seven years after concluding that the company deceived US regulators after settling charges of sanctions violations last year.
The company quickly announced that it was halting operations, but the US and China last month reached a deal that allows ZTE to stay in business in exchange for paying an additional US$1 billion in fines and agreeing to let US regulators monitor its operations.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last