United States | 'Blocking' | Behind ZTE: Why does Washington rely on big sticks?

The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a statement on the 16th saying that because ZTE Corporation violated the settlement agreement reached with the U.S. government last year, it will implement a seven-year export ban on the company. This means that U.S. companies cannot provide products to ZTE within seven years.

The spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce subsequently stated:

China has always required Chinese companies to abide by the laws and policies of the host country and conduct operations legally and in compliance with regulations.

ZTE Corporation has conducted extensive trade and investment cooperation with hundreds of U.S. companies and contributed tens of thousands of jobs to the United States.

We hope that the United States will properly handle the matter in accordance with regulations, and create a fair, equitable and stable legal and policy environment for the company.

The Ministry of Commerce will pay close attention to the progress of the situation and stand ready to take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

ZTE's Ins and Outs

The origin of this incident was in 2016. In March of that year, the U.S. government placed ZTE on the list of export restrictions on the ground that ZTE and its three affiliates violated US-related export bans, restricting US suppliers from exporting to ZTE including chips. Within the United States products.

In March 2017, ZTE reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Justice. ZTE agreed to pay a fine of US$890 million. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s US$300 million fine for ZTE and its seven-year export The ban was suspended.

After the settlement agreement was reached, ZTE was removed from the U.S. export restriction list, and the business of ZTE and U.S. suppliers returned to normal.

However, on the 16th, the U.S. Department of Commerce stated in its statement that during the negotiation of the 2016 settlement agreement and during the suspension period of 2017, ZTE violated the relevant settlement agreement.

U.S. indiscriminate economic sanctions

The U.S. government often conducts economic sanctions against foreign entities and individuals through the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce and other countries. Russia, North Korea, Iran and other countries have suffered tremendous pressure. How severe are these sanctions? Why does the United States use this method? ?

First of all, we must mention Russia. In the near future, the United States has obviously increased its sanctions against Russia:

On March 15, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia’s 19 individuals and five entities on the grounds of Russia’s cyber attacks.

On April 6, the United States added additional sanctions to crack down on Russia’s commercial giants.

After this round of sanctions, coupled with the tense situation in Syria, Russia's stock market and foreign exchange market experienced major fluctuations. The two major stock indexes fell sharply. The ruble was the lowest against the US dollar and the euro since 2016. Companies affected by the sanctions, stock prices It is a sharp drop.

According to statistics, the net worth of Russia’s richest people has shrunk by 16 billion U.S. dollars.

Yes, the means of economic sanctions were long ago. But why did Washington frequently wave this big stick in recent years?

It is still related to the process of global economic integration. Economic sanctions are more lethal to the countries that have integrated into the global supply chain. What the United States wants to threaten is precisely this type of country. This is called 'precision combat'.

Taking Russia as an example, the President of the Russian Central Bank and the deputy prime minister have all recently admitted that most of the large Russian companies are export-oriented. The sanctions imposed by the United States really hurt these companies.

Shop bully hurts people

Of course, economic sanctions will not only affect the sanctioned countries, but the US economy itself will also suffer negative shocks. Countries that are sanctioned will counter it; sanctioned foreign companies will not be able to continue normal business dealings with U.S. companies and will also affect U.S. trade. , Investment, Cooperation and Employment.

Taking ZTE as an example, as one of the world's leading integrated communication solution providers, ZTE has maintained a good relationship of cooperation with numerous US suppliers and provided support for nearly 130,000 high-tech jobs in the United States.

Experts pointed out that since ZTE has closely cooperated with many U.S. companies, the U.S. government’s export control measures for ZTE will cause losses to those of ZTE’s suppliers in the United States, such as Qualcomm and Intel.

With funds, technology, and strengths, can you wield great sticks to other stakeholders in the globalisation chain? Why should the United States do so? Isn't it because of its status as the leading player in the global supply chain? ?

This call the shop bully off.

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