Trump has potential conflicts of interest that could explain his uncharacteristic stance toward one Chinese giant
President Donald Trump is pushing for Congress to go easy on a Chinese telecommunications company that may pose a national security threat to the United States.
Trump’s plan to pressure Republican congressmen on Wednesday came after a defense bill was passed in the Senate on Monday that restored economic sanctions on ZTE Corp., according to Bloomberg. The measure, which was passed by a margin of 85 votes to 10 votes, caused a 27 percent decline in ZTE’s stock on the Hong Kong exchange. It was supported by a bipartisan coalition, with many Republicans sharing the view of their Democratic colleagues that ZTE poses a national security threat to the United States and that Trump was in error for opposing sanctions against it.
The Senate’s defense bill will ultimately need to be reconciled with a similar measure passed by the House of Representatives in May, albeit one that did not contain the same sanctions restoration provisions. This will provide Trump with an opportunity to exert pressure on legislators to remove or weaken the sanctions in the bill that is ultimately passed by both houses of Congress.
Trump’s determination to protect ZTE is seemingly at odds with his otherwise tough stance on trade matters, particularly involving China. As Reuters reported on Monday:
ZTE itself has been accused of violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea, as well as using its technology to spy on Americans on behalf of the Chinese government. While this may make it even more mystifying for the Trump administration to support ZTE’s corporate interests, it becomes considerably less so when you consider that a Chinese corporation with strong ties to that nation’s government agreed to invest $500 million in a major Trump-branded project in Indonesia.
