Analysis On The Case Of US Sanctions Against ZTE

The case of sanctions against ZTE(hereinafter referred to as ZTE case)began with the investigation of ZTE’s dealings with Iran by the Court of Texas in 2012.In 2018,the US Department of Commerce announced that it reached the second round of new settlement agreement with ZTE,which is the phased development result of this case.The successive sanctions in 2020 and 2021 marked the continuing development of the case,and the expiration of the probation on March 23,2022 was a continuation of the settlement agreement previously reached.The development of the ZTE case represents a shift in the US strategy of suppressing China from a traditional economic trade war to a strategy of technological decoupling.ZTE represents a Chinese high-tech enterprise that relies on American technology to survive,and technology dependence is the fundamental reason why the United States can use “long-arm jurisdiction”,secondary sanctions,deferred prosecution agreement and other legal methods against ZTE.Therefore,the analysis and summary of the ZTE case is beneficial for Chinese enterprises to deepen their understanding of the relevant legal system of the United States,and to deal with the legal sanctions of the United States in a more reasonable and efficient way.At the same time,it also lets Chinese enterprises bear in mind that “economic base determines superstructure”.Only by constantly improving innovation ability and manufacturing level and getting rid of dependence on products and technologies can they fundamentally resist the sanctions imposed by the United States.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the other content is divided into three parts.The first part is case introduction and question raising.The case involves the US government,Iran,ZTE and other parties,with a long time span and ongoing development.Therefore,this paper first introduces the background of the case,and then summarizes the development of each stage in order of time,so as to show the process of the case clearly and clarify the relationship between all parties.With the development of the case,the following questions arouse people’s thinking: whether the US has jurisdiction,why the deferred prosecution agreement was reached,whether the US administration has the right to intervene in ZTE’s internal governance,and the purpose of the US sanctions against ZTE.The second part analyzes the above problems.This paper analyzes the United States is abusing the long arm jurisdiction system,the reason why the settlement agreement became the main way for the United States Department of Justice to sanction foreign enterprises,the illegality of the interference of the United States Department of Commerce in ZTE’s internal governance through trade sanctions,and the purpose of the United States to use a variety of sanctions against ZTE.The third part of the main content is to point out the warning significance of the case.The case revealed that the United States threatened to stop supplying technology to foreign companies to accept legal sanctions voluntarily.The analysis of the case is beneficial for Chinese enterprises to deal with the legal sanctions initiated by the United States in a more reasonable and efficient way,and to facilitate the construction of the compliance system of Chinese enterprises.More importantly,the case is a warning to Chinese enterprises to constantly strengthen independent innovation capacity and reduce dependence on foreign technology.