Congress has sanctions in place against certain Chinese tech companies….
The US Intelligence community is screaming that ZTE is a covert Chinese intel asset against America…
But, Trump , the ‘businessman’ has gone ahead and brokered a deal with the Chinese to SAVE JOBS IN CHINA………
Now Trump’s own party members in the Senate have moved to have their say on the ZTE deal….
Hmmmm?
Will they REALLY shit can their President’s deal and embarrass him in public risking his wrath months before the Midterm Elections?
Moving quickly to thwart the president’s $1.4 billion deal to save Chinese telecom manufacturer ZTE, lawmakers attached a new provision Monday to a must-pass defense authorization bill.
What they’re saying: President Trump’s deal is not just a national security problem, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who introduced the amendment along with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and a bipartisan posse of cosponsors — it’s also bad dealmaking. “He got rolled,” Van Hollen told Codebook.
The Senate voted to reinstate a ban on selling U.S. parts to Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp. , rejecting a deal President Donald Trump made with Beijing to save the firm.
The measure was wrapped in a larger, must-pass defense bill that cleared the Senate on an 85-10 vote Monday. Mr. Trump is expected to turn his attention to persuading congressional negotiators to strip out the ZTE sales ban as they reconcile competing House and Senate versions of the bill….
More…
This is getting a little hard to keep straight in my head.
Am I right in inferring that, economically speaking, the President is harsher on China in general than on specific Chinese enterprises like ZTE, while Congress (on both sides of the aisle, and in common with most Americans who know what ZTE is) is much harsher on these firms than it is on trade with Chine in general ?
How does this align with national security concerns ? Most Democrats and most Republicans don’t like Chinese militaristic neo-imperialism suppressing minorities and trying to seize the South China Sea, while the Trump administration seems more tolerant.
Bu then the President seems to like other countries’ secret police and their veterans more than he does America’s own intelligence-security community (a.k.a. The Deep State).
The President cut a deal FOR ZTE to get AROUND Chinese sanctions imposed by the US….
ZTE and other Chinese telecommunications comp airs have been called into question by US Intel …..
Trump nevertheless cut a deal to get the company into business…..his carrot and stick thing with China that was escalated today
I understand the company paper took a hit with news of the Senate news….
Senators not voting to pass the Defense bill. They seem a rather mixed group, but chiefly liberals and libertarians. Notice that both California Senators (D) voted against, but only one from New York (Gillibrand, but not Minority Leader Schumer).
NAYs —10
Feinstein (D-CA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harris (D-CA)
Lee (R-UT)
Markey (D-MA)
Merkley (D-OR)
Paul (R-KY)
Sanders (I-VT)
Warren (D-MA)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting – 5
Boozman (R-AR)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Duckworth (D-IL)
McCain (R-AZ)
Shaheen (D-NH)
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=2&vote=00128
And it wouldn’t be easy to ascribe the votes to pure economic interest, since both Senators from Massachusetts (Markey & Warren) and both from California (Feinstein & Harris) voted against the defense funding bill at the same time that both states are heavily involved, either directly or indirectly, in the defense industry.
What are the amendments and riders?
Is the budget cut ament in the bull…