Washington, May 13 (EFE).- President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that he is working with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to ensure that Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE gets “back into business, fast” in the US after the ban imposed in April on the sale of its components in this country, his tweet being an apparent signal of conciliation to Beijing.
“President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast,” said Trump on Twitter.
“Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!” the US leader added in the same post.
Trump’s comments came at a moment of significant tension between Washington and Beijing amid the threat of billions of dollars worth of tariffs that both sides potentially could impose on each other.
On April 16, the US Commerce Department announced a ban on US companies selling components to ZTE through 2025, claiming that the Chinese telephone giant had not complied with the agreement it reached last year when it was discovered that ZTE had exported its products to Iran and North Korea.
At that time, the Chinese firm agreed to pay a $1.192 billion fine to the US government and to implement measures such as firing or sanctioning the executives who had violated the agreement.
According to Washington, however, those actions were never undertaken, and so the US government moved to restrict ZTE’s operations in this country.
The Chinese firm, at the time, called the decision “extremely unfair” and claimed that it had learned from past experience and had complied with the agreement.