Republicans cave to Trump and soften legislation punishing Chinese telecom giant ZTE

Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

• Republicans will ease the ban on ZTE smartphone sales in the United States, instead just restricting them from US government contracts.
• The move is a major concession to President Donald Trump, whose administration has pushed for easing sanctions in recent months.

WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans gave what appears to be a major concession to President Donald Trump on Friday, easing the ban on the Chinese smartphone maker ZTE.

The conference committee tasked with hashing out the final details of the must-pass defense bill by combining the House and Senate's respective versions decided to strip language from the legislation that would have enacted a complete ban on ZTE sales in the United States, a Democratic aide confirmed to Business Insider.

Last month, the Senate passed their version of the defense bill with language banning ZTE sales. It was viewed as a major blow to Trump, who had wanted the Chinese company to get back on its feet. Instead, the bill would only ban ZTE from US government contracts, which is more in line with the House Republican plan.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Republicans and the White House in a statement on Friday, saying they "have once again made President Xi and the Chinese Government the big winners and the American worker and our national security the big losers."

"The administration's backtrack on ZTE is another example of the president being weak in the face of another nation's leader while Republicans just follow along," Schumer added. "President Trump has once again broken his core promise to be tough on China simply to please the president of China - and he got nothing in return."

ZTE has been a contentious issue in Washington. Many Senate Republicans were weary of the smartphone maker's intentions. When the White House announced they would look at lifting sanctions on ZTE, many lawmakers were shocked and felt out of the loop on what they view as a key area of national security.

"I'm sure the president's national security team is advising him about this company and some of their nefarious activities," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune told Business Insider in May. "But I just really worry about us doing anything that would benefit them."