UPDATED: Trump pledges to help Chinese phonemaker ZTE 'get back into business'

[riversedge]

28. Schiff: **** ZTE technology and phones pose a major cyber security threat. You should care more abo

This is a major problem. damn!



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/13/trump-pledges-to-help-chinese-phone-maker-zte-get-back-into-business/?utm_term=.68119bf53cca


...............It’s highly unusual for a president to personally intervene in a regulatory matter and could undercut the leverage of Treasury and Commerce officials seeking to enforce sanctions and trade rules. It could send the signal to foreign leaders that anything can be put on the bargaining table as Trump seeks to cut trade deals, trade analysts said.

"It seems to cut across the concern about tech competition with China, supplying Iran, and jobs in China, so it all seems pretty confusing," Adam Segal, the director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said of Trump's tweet. "That’s why everybody’s so flabbergasted by it. We’ve had from the beginning of this administration an increased drumbeat of warnings about ZTE and Huawei and the threat to U.S. security by having any of their products in the United States or U.S. supply chains. We’ve seen that from the FBI, the intelligence community and DOD that this is just too much of a threat, and that these companies are a threat to U.S. technological leadership going forward."

ZTE's business in the United States has long raised concerns among national security officials. Shortly after Trump's tweet, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said, "Our intelligence agencies have warned that ZTE technology and phones pose a major cyber security threat. You should care more about our national security than Chinese jobs."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A ZTE spokesman also did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Trump is trying to broker a historic agreement with North Korea in an attempt to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. The president has said that his economic approach to China is linked to his national security strategy, and China plays an integral part in any decision made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump's tweet on Sunday comes just days before U.S. officials are planning to meet with Liu He, one of Chinese President Xi Jinping's closest advisers, to discuss the strained trade ties. That meeting is expected to be held in Washington this week or next..............................