ZTE said it will seek talks with US officials and take legal action if necessary, after the US government "unfairly" imposed a ban on components from the US to the Chinese company. In its first official statement since the ban was announced, ZTE said the seven-year order will "not only severely impact the survival and development of ZTE, but will also cause damages to all partners of ZTE including a large number of US companies".
ZTE's statement underlined the extensive work on compliance the company's done since it was found in 2016 to have violated a US export order against sales to Iran. It said the US government was "ignoring" the work and progress by ZTE on export compliance, and it was "unacceptable that Bureau of Industry and Security insists on unfairly imposing the most severe penalty on ZTE even before the completion of investigation of facts".
The company noted that it also had not received any credit for "self-identifying" and "self-reporting" the issues cited by the US, over alleged bonuses for employees involved in the Iran case and misleading correspondence about their situation. The company said it took measures against the employees who might have been responsible for this incident and "corrective measures" were taken immediately, including hiring a "prestigious" US law firm to conduct an independent investigation.
ZTE said it will "work to resolve the issue through communication, and we are also determined, if necessary, to take judicial measures to protect the legal rights and interests of our company, our employees and our shareholders, and to fulfill obligations and take responsibilities to our global customers, end-users, partners and suppliers."
The company did not comment on how it expects the ban to affect day-to-day operations with customers. Its shares also remain suspend from trading in China.
