Trump And The Senate’s Cold War Over ZTE Is About To Turn Hot

At this point, the battle lines over President Trump’s trade policies are pretty hardened: Trump and his White House team are the bomb-throwing nationalists, provoking conflicts with China as well as Western allies. Meanwhile, the old hands of the Washington establishment — often represented by the Senate — have emphasized global cooperation and trade.

But on at least one issue, that script is about to get flipped.

The question at hand is what to do about ZTE, a major Chinese telecommunication company and the fourth largest supplier of mobile phones here in America.

You might remember when ZTE got itself in the news back in May: A White House investigation, which began all the way back in 2012, concluded that ZTE had violated various economic sanctions against selling parts to Iran or North Korea. The company also violated the terms of an initial settlement that fined it $1.19 billion in 2017 for this same behaviour. So the Commerce Department reimposed a seven-year ban on ZTE doing any business with American companies.