Original title: CCTV comments: I'm afraid there's something wrong with the US killing ZTE
Recently, the US Department of Commerce announced that it would take export control measures against ZTE. Here, there is a question we have to think about. Is the United States going to block ZTE or point to Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers? The United States punished ZTE before, because ZTE sold American technology to Iran, and the two sides reached a settlement later, but ZTE needs to pay about $890 million in criminal and civil penalties.
This time, the reason why the US blocked ZTE was that it didn't strictly implement the settlement agreement, only fired four senior employees, and didn't punish or reduce the bonus of 35 employees, which is the so-called "real hammer".
As a matter of fact, China is not an ally of the United States, nor is it in the Cold War era. Chinese companies have no obligation to implement the resolutions of the United States. But the strength of the United States is a reality that many large companies have to consider. Many companies that have reached so-called "reconciliation" with the United States are suffering privately.
Compared with the sanctions imposed on ZTE, a similar example is that in the mid-1980s, the United States imposed a three-year ban on Toshiba, which exported CNC machine tools to the Soviet Union, to prevent Toshiba's products from entering the U.S. market. ZTE's settlement with the US was to pay a huge fine, while Toshiba at that time shared with the us some technology in military industry for the cooperation of new fighters. Taking the Toshiba incident as an example, sanctions are the means by which the US side obtains benefits according to the rules it has formulated, because at that time, the US thought that it had lagged behind Japan in the fields of semiconductor technology, optical fiber technology and intelligent machinery technology. So is this ZTE incident the same? At least we can say that it's not true to make use of a pretext.
Even according to the settlement agreement between the US side and ZTE, the US side has better, more reasonable and more appropriate measures. China has taken note of the announcement by the U.S. Department of commerce that it will take export control measures against ZTE. A spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce said that China has always required Chinese enterprises to abide by the laws and policies of the host country and operate legally and in compliance with regulations in the process of overseas operations. It is hoped that the US side will properly handle it in accordance with laws and regulations, and create a just, fair and stable legal and policy environment for enterprises. The reason why China reminds the us to abide by the rules and regulations is that the US is making a fuss and making a lot of use of it.
What is the purpose behind the unusual US sanctions to block ZTE?
It is reported that ZTE has started to confirm one by one whether each production process, supply chain department or other activities currently in progress involve products originating in the United States, and is applying to the U.S. Department of Commerce for explanatory guidance on some contents of the export ban order. As far as enterprises are concerned, this is a very pragmatic attitude. I hope that the problem can be solved reasonably as soon as possible. But it is also very important for our Ministry of Commerce to pay close attention to the progress of the situation. We should be ready to take necessary measures at any time to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises. Because the back of ZTE is not simple.
ZTE has 25% - 30% of its parts from American suppliers, but the most core parts are all dependent on American suppliers. ZTE's mobile phone chips, baseband chips, RF chips, memory chips, mobile phone glass, optical components and other core components are all from Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel, Meguiar, Oracle, Corning and other technology giants in the United States. In the short term, ZTE cannot find alternative products that can maintain the same competitiveness. Among the core parts of ZTE communication equipment, 100% of the parts of base station are from American companies. ZTE has 1-2 months' stock. If it does not reach a settlement with the US within this time, the production of ZTE equipment will be affected. This will affect the telecommunication industry, especially the network construction of Chinese operators. This is a question we need to ask. Is the us going to kill ZTE or point to Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers? Or even point to the development of China's telecom industry? Because the US sanctions are too abnormal, even far beyond the imagination of ZTE's partners in the US.
ZTE has carried out extensive trade and investment cooperation with hundreds of American enterprises, contributing tens of thousands of jobs to the United States. The U.S. behavior has aroused widespread concern about the U.S. trade and investment environment. The U.S. behavior is ostensibly aimed at China, but ultimately hurt the U.S. itself, which will not only lose tens of thousands of jobs, but also affect hundreds of U.S. affiliated enterprises, which will shake the international community's confidence in the stability of the U.S. investment and business environment.
We will pay close attention to ZTE, but we are really shocked by the fact that the U.S. side doesn't even care about its own corporate interests. At the same time, let's be more clear. We must increase the determination of independent research and development and accelerate the pace of core technology breakthrough.