Trump pledges to safeguard Chinese telecoms jobs

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he was working with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to prevent telecom giant ZTE from going out of business after it was hit by an American technology sales ban.

Writing on Twitter, Trump said he had issued instructions for officials to come up with a rescue plan, saying too many jobs were at risk.

“President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast,” Trump said.

“Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!”

The concern for Chinese workers comes despite Trump’s slogan to “Make America Great Again” and his repeated vows to bring back US jobs, which he complains have been lost to other countries, particularly China.

“How about helping some American companies first?” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in response to Trump’s tweet.

ZTE, which employs 80,000 people, said last week that its major operations had “ceased” after being banned for seven years from buying critical American technology, raising the possibility of its collapse.

Its fiber-optic networks depend on US components and its cheap smartphones sold en masse abroad are powered by US chips and the Android operating system.

US officials imposed the ban because of what they said were false statements by the firm over action it claimed to have taken regarding the illegal sale of goods to Iran and North Korea. — AFP