The past couple of months have no doubt be a very trying time for Chinese company ZTE, where they were hit with a ban from sourcing components from US companies. This almost resulted in the company being forced to shut down as it crippled its operations majorly, but as you might have heard, ZTE managed to work out a deal with the US government.This involved paying a $1 billion fine, $400 million in escrow against future fines, and was also given 30-days to overhaul its executive team. They also had to work with a US government-selected compliance team to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, something that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro had warned the company about.
Speaking to Fox, Navarro was quoted as saying, “It’s going to be three strikes you’re out on ZTE. If they do one more additional thing, they will be shut down.” Navarro also claimed that the deal was a gesture to help build goodwill with China. “The President did this as a personal favor to the president of China as a way of showing some good will for bigger efforts such as the one here in Singapore.”
There is no doubt that ZTE is clearly on very, very thin ice and it remains to be seen if they will be able to stay on the good side of the US government.