Facing charges of yielding to Chinese demands, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration had not yet reached a deal with Beijing to save telecom company ZTE.
The president contradicted a Wall Street Journal report indicating the Trump administration came to a tentative agreement with Beijing to revive the company currently sanctioned by the U.S. government. Under the deal reported by the newspaper, ZTE would face financial penalties and have to make management changes. China could also pull back on billions of dollars in tariffs on U.S. agricultural products, according to the Journal.
The potential deal sparked bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, as some lawmakers accused the president of caving to Chinese demands on trade and potentially compromising U.S. national security. In a bipartisan rebuke to Trump, the Senate Banking Committee overwhelmingly passed an amendment Tuesday limiting his ability to remove sanctions on Chinese telecommunications companies.
Trump’s remarks came as Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, visited the White House for pivotal discussions ahead of the planned U.S.-North Korea summit next month in Singapore.
Trump previously directed his Commerce Department to look into how it could help ZTE get back into business. He said he did so at the urging of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Trump administration previously barred U.S. companies from selling to ZTE due to the company’s violation of American sanctions on North Korea and Iran.
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