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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday May 13 2018, @10:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the trade-wars-2.0 dept.

Chinese Tech Giant on Brink of Collapse in New U.S. Cold War (archive)

Not Apple. Not Huawei. The first casualty of the high-tech cold war between the United States and China might be the biggest electronics maker you've never heard of.

The Chinese firm ZTE said on Wednesday [PDF] it had ceased "major operating activities" after the Trump administration banned the company last month from using components made in the United States. With manufacturing halted at the ZTE plant in Shenzhen, factory workers have been getting called in for training sessions every other day or so — a snooze, they say. The rest of the time, they loaf around in nearby dorms.

Trading in the company's shares has been suspended for weeks. Staff members have been instructed, in new guidelines reviewed by The New York Times, to reassure anxious clients, while being sure to avoid discussing with them the American technology from which the firm is cut off for the next seven years.

One of China's most internationally successful technology suppliers, with about $17 billion in annual revenue, ZTE is facing a death sentence. The Commerce Department has blocked its access to American-made components until 2025, saying the company failed to punish employees who violated trade controls against Iran and North Korea.

Update: President Trump has vowed to get ZTE "back into business, fast" (archive):

President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

Also at Fortune, WSJ, USAToday and CNN.

Previously: U.S. Intelligence Agency Heads Warn Against Using Huawei and ZTE Products
Huawei CEO Still Committed to the U.S. Market
Rural Wireless Association Opposes U.S. Government Ban on Huawei and ZTE Equipment
ZTE Responds to U.S. Ban on Sales by American Companies to ZTE


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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 13 2018, @10:46PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 13 2018, @10:46PM (#679340)

    the biggest electronics maker you've never heard of

    Given that ZTE is one of the largest producers of mobile phones in the world, hard to imagine that people with even a passing interest in electronics have literally never heard of them.

    If you walk into almost any store that sells phones, probably almost anywhere in the world, you will see ZTE products on display (most likely, the cheapest phone the store will sell you is a ZTE phone).

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  • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Sunday May 13 2018, @10:55PM (2 children)

    by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 13 2018, @10:55PM (#679345) Journal

    ...passing interest in electronics have literally never heard of them

    Well, I've heard of them, associated the brand with mobile phones (amusingly - and not really electronics other than that) but had no real idea that they were *this* large a company.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @12:42AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @12:42AM (#679377)

      ZTE is not just a mobile phone manufacturer. They deal heavily in telecommunications infrastructure equipment as well, just like two other big names that used to be strongly associated with the mobile phone handset industry: Nokia and Ericsson, who are their main competitors in the telecom data centre. Both of them got out of the consumer handset business a long time ago. Nokia is just mooching off their brand which still has a good deal of recognition, but the main company in Finland no longer has anything directly to do with the phones that are being made under their name, not since the debacle with Microsoft several years ago. These days their big money is in telecom infrastructure (they bought off Lucent, so Bell Labs is now Nokia Bell Labs [bell-labs.com]). Ericsson used to be in the handset business many years ago: they even got into bed with Sony for a partnership that lasted well into the smartphone era, but some years ago they divested their holdings in that and now it's only Sony that's making phones. But Ericsson was always much more heavily into the telecom infrastructure equipment space, even then.

      If ZTE is shut out of the American telecom data centre that kinda hurts them a lot more than not seeing their phones being sold in the United States.

      • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Monday May 14 2018, @01:03AM

        by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 14 2018, @01:03AM (#679387) Journal

        This is exactly what I meant though. While I had *heard* of the - I had no idea until this article just how large a company they were and how much of their products are used all through the country.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 13 2018, @10:55PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 13 2018, @10:55PM (#679346)

    hard to imagine that people with even a passing interest in electronics have literally never heard of them.

    EE - I've literally never heard of them!

    • (Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 14 2018, @06:07PM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday May 14 2018, @06:07PM (#679682) Homepage Journal

      ZTE isn't the most famous company -- or even the second most famous. And neither is EE. But I haven't forgotten them. And I'm working very hard to make a deal that will be VERY FAIR!!!