A bipartisan group of senators has successfully pushed for the inclusion of a bill to undo a deal to save Chinese telecom ZTE, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s trade negotiations with China.
The lawmakers are likely to attach an amendment to an annual defense policy bill that is expected to pass in the coming days, reimposing any penalty removed by the Trump administration on the Chinese tech giant as part of Trump’s negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I think people are fed up with what ZTE did and they don’t think we should just let them off hook, and that it does send a very bad signal to anybody else around the world who’s thinking about violating sanctions of the United States,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, co-author of the amendment.
The successful inclusion of an amendment to block the deal marks the latest twist in the days-long efforts by lawmakers to block the deal between the two presidents and the administration’s attempt to undercut those efforts.
However, even if senators pass the defense bill, it would still have to be reconciled with the House version, buying the Trump administration more time to find a way to block the effort. Several senators said that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross provided a classified briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday night in an attempt to convince them the administration’s policy was good.
ZTE has been accused of stealing U.S. citizens’ private information and in April the Commerce Department banned it from purchasing U.S. products. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican who co-authored the amendment, said it would “keep Americans’ private information out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
President Trump lifted the sanctions on ZTE at Xi’s requests, describing it as a piece of the broader trade negotiations ongoing with China. Peter Navarro, one of his top trade advisers said Sunday “the President did this as a personal favor to the president of China as a way of showing some goodwill for bigger efforts.”
Be the first to comment