Cybersecurity Concerns: The US And UK Are Going After Chinese Telecom Brand ZTE

With tensions between the United States and China reaching a new high, American authorities and British authorities have separately taken on Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corporation by raking up issues of national security, reports The Wall Street Journal.

British cybersecurity experts have asked carriers to abstain from using the Chinese firms equipment, highlighting that Beijing could force the company to help infiltrate or sabotage telecom infrastructure. The United States Department of Commerce banned American entities from selling anything to ZTE saying that they violated sanctions by getting involved with Iran and North Korea.

ZTE meanwhile said that it is assessing the impacts of such actions on the company and in the past has denied any security issues that have been alleged.

Responding to the United States, China’s Commerce Ministry has urged the US to provide a fair, impartial and stable environment to the company.

With Washington imposing a series of high tariffs to deter Chinese domination in the US markets, China has rebuffed all allegations of its unfair trade practices, going so far as to threatening the US with tit-for-tat reactions to its sanctions.

The technology sector is the latest to join in the battlefield between the two global economic superpowers. Last month, Washintong stepped in to prevent Singapore’s Broadcom from going forward with a hostile takeover of Qualcomm, citing among various things, the potential of the takeover to disengage Qualcomm from its race against China’s Huawei in manufacturing telecom equipment.

Looking at a new front in the economic war against China, the US has been looking for ways to take on China’s restrictions on American cloud computing service providers.

While Europe has been more accommodating, especially while working with Huawei, the United Kingdom hasn’t extending the friendly nature to ZTE.