The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that workers from ZTE, a state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, had been tracked by U.S. officials “exiting suspected Chinese spy facilities in Cuba.” ZTE had been under U.S. sanctions since 2016, but the Trump administration lifted those sanctions in 2018 allowing the communications equipment maker to resume business in the U.S.

“Intelligence reviewed during the Trump administration contributed to suspicions at the time that the companies might be playing a role in expanding China’s ability to spy on the U.S. from the island, according to the people,” reported Kate O’Keeffe in the Journal – referring to Huawei Technologies as well as ZTE.

Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on ZTE was met with bipartisan condemnation in 2018. “ZTE should be put out of business. There is no ‘deal’ with a state-directed company that the Chinese government and Communist Party uses to spy and steal from us where Americans come out winning,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said in a statement at the time.

“The department will remain vigilant as we closely monitor ZTE’s actions to ensure compliance with all U.S. laws and regulations,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at the time as well, addressing the criticism. In 2017, ZTE pleaded guilty to illegally exporting U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea.

Trump’s lifting of sanctions on the company sparked divisions within Congress as the Senate moved to block the Commerce Department deal allowing ZTE to pay a hefty fine in order to lift the export restrictions. The Senate passed the Defense Department budget in 2019 with a provision both blocking the deal to lift sanctions and banning the federal government from buying Huawei and ZTE products. The House eventually stripped the provision blocking sanctions relief from the defense budget authorization and Trump signed it into law, only keeping the ban on the federal government buying ZTE products.

Trump’s motivation to help ZTE do business in the U.S. has long been a controversial topic in U.S. national security circles. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro raised eyebrows in June of 2018 when he told Fox News, “It’s going to be three strikes you’re out on ZTE. If they do one more additional thing, they will be shut down. We have a bad actor in ZTE…President (Donald Trump) did this as a personal favor to the president of China as a way of showing some goodwill.”

Furthermore, following the May 2018 announcement by Trump that he would lift sanctions on ZTE, China announced a $500 million loan to help fund a theme park in Indonesia with a Trump-branded hotel and golf course attached.

“The Chinese government is extending a $500 million loan to a state-owned construction company to build an Indonesian theme park that will feature a Trump-branded golf course and hotels,” read the lead of a National Review article from May 2018.

Later that same month, speculation abounded that Trump’s sanctions relief was related to his daughter Ivanka Trump seeking trademarks in China. New York Times ran an article titled, “Ivanka Trump Wins China Trademarks, Then Her Father Vows to Save ZTE.” While the Times makes clear the connection between Ivanka’s trademarks and ZTE is “probably” a coincidence, the article argues “the remarkable timing is raising familiar questions about the Trump family’s businesses and its patriarch’s status as commander in chief.”

“Even as Mr. Trump contends with Beijing on issues like security and trade, his family and the company that bears his name are trying to make money off their brand in China’s flush and potentially promising market,” wrote Sui-Lee Wee at the time.

ZTE employees’ presence at the spy base in Cuba, which China allegedly has maintained since 2019 – while Trump was still president – is certain to raise even more questions as to ZTE’s ability to do business in the U.S. and why sanctions were removed in the first place.

The post Chinese Company Trump Relieved of Sanctions As a ‘Personal Favor’ Is Reportedly Linked to Cuba Spy Base first appeared on Mediaite.

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