The Chairman of ZTE, Mr. Yin Yimin, issued a public statement acknowledging that the company is "in a very difficult situation," stating that his team is doing its utmost to solve this situation through active communication, and imploring the company's 80,000 employees to "be stable-minded and perform their respective duties."
The public statement comes nine days after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has imposed a denial of export privileges order against ZTE for false statements in the case of shipping restricted technologies to Iran and North Korea during a period of international sanctions. The order prohibits the export of any item from the United States to ZTE.
In his statement, Mr. Yin Yimin describes the decision made by the U.S. Department of Commerce as "unfair and unreasonable punishment" and that the U.S. side is making a trade issue into a political one.
ZTE also noted that it owns over 69,000 global patents and that it has been a major contributor to global 5G standardization.
"Certainly, we shall strengthen our technological investment to make us more competitive,” said Mr. Yin Yimin. ZTE has been insisting in the independent innovation of key technologies and extending its R&D investment. The company’s R&D expenditure was RMB 12.96 billion in 2017, covering 11.9 % of its revenue. ZTE has been continuously extending its investment in 5G R&D and related fields. To date, ZTE has formed a 5G R&D team with more than 4,500 professionals and annually invested around RMB 3 billion in 5G wireless R&D."
http://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/press-clipping/201804/201804232355
