So, both the US and UK announced today that they are going to sanction product sales of ZTE. In the US Reuters reports the main reason goes back to a consent agreement from a 2016, based on a 2014 case involving sales to Iran that were set up to intentionally avoid sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. At that time, the US published the internal playbook used by ZTE “and one other company” never named by the Obama Administration. The UK story is a little different but not too much. The BBC says their cyber security people were concerned that ZTE equipment might pose a threat to UK networks. They don’t seem to mention why that would be.
While there is not much changed since this all started, it has to be taken in the spirit of the Chinese manipulation of networks to collect intelligence for the government. But, with trade tensions rising, this is one more thing that will not be ignored anymore. Much more to come.
In the second edition of The Chinese Information War, I added some new sections and detail on Huawei and ZTE which have been called the main characters in this intelligence drama. ZTE and Huawei have been on the front edge of US targeting of sanctions violations. China signs up for sanctions in the U.N. then violates them before the ink is dry on the agreements.
See also previous posts on monitoring ZTE agreement and on the mystery of why ZTE and Huawei are targets
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