TechTheDay

ZTE and Huawei have been bullied by the USA’s Commerce Department and the Defense Department since last month: first, there’s an investigation on both ZTE and Huawei for possible spying and other violations. Then ZTE got banned from trading with its US partners on the grounds that they traded with Iran at the time the USA has placed sanctions against Iran. Huawei was also being investigated for possible similar violations as well. Then the Pentagon has banned the selling of Huawei products inside their controlled territories for fear of possible electronic attack from China through Huawei’s products.

It seems that there’s no hope of getting back up in the US market with the sanctions and bans against the two companies. However, it seems that they have gained a new and powerful ally in the form of US President Donald Trump.

Get Back Into Business

To the surprise of everyone, Donald Trump tweeted on May 13th that he has been cooperating with China’s president Xi Jinping to give ZTE “a way to get back into business fast,” following it up by saying that lots of people in China have lost their jobs, possibly because of the bans and sanctions ZTE and Huawei are receiving. This could mean that the Commerce Department might need to reverse their decision against ZTE.

Trump defended his tweet in saying that ZTE buys most of its parts from US companies. He also stated that this problem with ZTE might also affect their country’s relationship with China and “his personal relationship with President Xi.”

Wilber Ross, the Department of Commerce Secretary has commented during a luncheon at the National Press Club that they hope to make a fair deal out of it, but if it doesn’t happen then it would not economically harm the USA.

Trump to the Rescue

Donald Trump has been very active with regards to the relationship he has with the tech side of things in his career. You may remember that during the first year of his presidency he ordered the modernization of the government’s tech and ask that tech companies help him create more jobs in the USA, which was one of his promises during his campaign. That didn’t work out in his favor because the tech companies pulled out one after the other because of political and ideological reason, not to mention that all of them are left-wing. But such petty reasons didn’t stop Trump from delivering what he promised due to lowering the tax rate in the US.

Then there’s that recent event where Broadcom started a hostile campaign to buy out Qualcomm. Qualcomm is important to the US because it is one of the leading companies when it comes to 5G technology, and they voiced out concerns about having foreign companies buy out Qualcomm. Broadcom was working for the US although it is a Singaporean-based company that also supply parts to US’ rival, China. Broadcom tried to buy out Qualcomm but dropped the issue for now after Trump intervened. However, Broadcom seems to still be planning to try again in the future because they moved their company to the USA to alleviate any concerns of Broadcom being a “foreign company.”

No Comment

ZTE didn’t comment on the matter, but they’re most likely glad that they got Trump on their side. Whether they do get a good deal out of it or not still remains to be seen. This, however, would definitely benefit ZTE’s US partners. This also means that any US employees of ZTE won’t be laid off. Trump, after all, is looking to increase jobs and keep the Americans employed, just like he promised.